Clima-Believer: Adidas’ New ClimaCool Golf Shoe

Lightweight, high-tech, reasonably priced.

One of adidas’s most recognizable and successful innovations, ClimaCool has facilitated air circulation and wicked away moisture from athletes’ bodies for nearly 15 years, allowing them to ”feel the breeze” and preventing sticky chests, backs, armpits, toes, backs of knees, etc.

The first ClimaCool product was a tennis shirt developed using thermal imaging to pinpoint the areas on a player’s upper body where he/she sweated the most. Further testing revealed how climate, age, gender, sport, and body type affected results. The technology spawned six other “Clima” lines – Lite, Chill, Warm, Heat, Storm, and Proof—but ClimaCool remains the standard bearer.

Conductive fibers, called X-Static and made with silver-coated yarns, together with three-dimensionally structured fabrics cover the body’s key heat and sweat zones, taking sweat away from the skin. The 3-D fabrics consist of hundreds of small indents positioned on the body-side of the fabric that raise it slightly above the skin to stop the garment from clinging to the body and maximizing ventilation.

Adidas soon introduced ClimaCool in footwear, with the same objective as the shirt – to promote ventilation in, out, and around the shoe and thus avoid hot, stinky feet.

The new adidas Climacool golf shoe, released last week, comes a year after the launch of the ClimaCool Ballerina – a women’s model with a distinctive curved outsole inspired by a lightweight ballerina slip-on profile.

“Both the Ballerina and new men’s ClimaCool shoe excel at keeping the foot cooler when the temperatures heat up,” says Masun Denison, adidas Golf’s Global Footwear Director. “The technology at work is similar. The biggest difference between the two is styling. While the Ballerina has a very feminine profile, the men’s model looks more like a sporty running shoe.”

Indeed, the men’s shoe is actually built on the same last as adidas’s famous Supernova running shoe, a product known primarily for supreme comfort. The ClimaCool’s perforated, molded TPU saddle provides extra support and stability as well as breathability, and the stretch gore collar makes getting the shoe on and off ridiculously easy. A spikeless outsole that uses another adidas breakthrough – puremotion – enhances flexibility and comfort.

The challenge when creating the ClimaCool golf shoe, says Denison, was finding the right balance between performance and cooling comfort.  “The more open you make a shoe (sandal-like) the more breathable it becomes,” he says. “But you compromise stability. We needed to produce something super lightweight and comfortable, had ClimaCool lining and great breathability, but which also had enough lateral stability and grip.”

Considering the lengthy list of technologies, it’s remarkable the ClimaCool weighs so little and retails at just $90 – excellent value for a state-of-the-art shoe. It is available in four color combinations – Black/Cyan, Grey/Power Red, Marine/Yellow, White/Silver/Blue.

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Colorado AvidGolfer is the state’s leading resource for golf and the lifestyle that surrounds it. It publishes eight issues annually and proudly delivers daily content via www.coloradoavidgolfer.com.

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