True to form

TRUE Linkswear launches its latest stylish and absurdly comfortable shoe

By Tony Dear

There are three good reasons for featuring TRUE Linkswear on this week’s Gear page. First is simply the Tacoma, Wash.-based shoe manufacturer makes good stuff that we’ve been fans of since the day it introduced its first product in 2009. Second, 2024 is another big year for the company with several new shoe models, rainwear, and a customization program being introduced. Third, it’s our way of paying tribute to Shane Sharp who represented the brand with professionalism and good humor for several years before tragically succumbing to cancer on Sunday. RIP Shane.

One of TRUE Linkwear’s highly-anticipated, and just-launched, shoes for this year, is the FS-Tour – the company’s take on the classic wingtip sneaker which TRUE’s Product Marketing Manager, Jeremy Santana, describes as a shoe whose toe cap resembles a wing with a backward extending point and curved sides.

“Wingtip shoes have been around since the 16th century,” Santana adds. “They originated in the Scottish Highlands where rain is abundant. The wingtip with perforation/brogue was an idea birthed more out of practicality than style. The style caught on, though, and wingtip shoes have been a staple for high-quality leather shoe builds ever since. Typically, you see these uppers on a more traditional dress shoe outsole, many of which consist of leather midsoles and some rubber tread. The FS-Tour is our version of what a modernized classic-looking upper made ready-to-wear for any occasion should be. We set out to build the most elevated-looking street-ready sneaker engineered with golf and everyday life in mind.”

The FS-Tour features a Top Grain Oiled Napa Leather Upper. TRUE has attracted thousands of new customers in recent years with its incredible fabric/Knit uppers that were/are extremely comfortable and surprisingly durable (my three-and-a-half-year-old pair of Knit II is still going strong). The leather uppers meet TRUE’s comfort standard while offering a different look and a little extra sturdiness. Much of the comfort is derived from the WANDERLUX Ultra Plush Insole which adds a layer of cushioning and is topped with a soft microsuede. Santana describes the tech inside the FS-Tour as ‘incognito’, adding “We did away with the traditional method of building shoes that consists of uncomfortable lasting-boards and glue layers. The one-piece, rubber-cup, Margom outsole eliminates many of the defect possibilities you get with other construction methods, and maximizes the comfort of the shoe.”

The sole features TRUE’s versatile FS tread which makes it good for golf and an evening out. ‘FS’ stands for ‘Future Staples’ a name born of TRUE’s admiration for brands whose shoes have stood the test of time from a quality standpoint. “More than that, though,” Santana stresses, “is that, as a design team, we’re amazed when a brand creates something that stays relevant in today’s world of fast-changing preferences. Future Staples is that category for us, and is aimed at implementing design language into products that we believe will be around for years to come.”

Metal logo accents and classic, wax-coated laces grace the FS-Tour which comes with a two-year waterproof guarantee.

$205
Colors – Black, Brown, White
Sizes – 7-15
truelinkswear.com

Colorado AvidGolfer Magazine is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it, publishing eight issues annually and proudly delivering daily content via coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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