Gripe No. 25: What toe-drag does to disc golf shoes

Disc golf shreds shoes …

I hate it.

I’ve heard skateboarding does the same, but outside of an old N64 console, I’ve got zero experience with the sport. So as far as I’m concerned, disc golf’s the worst on footwear.

If you’re unfamiliar with the plague of the toe-drag, for the afflicted, it most commonly occurs on backhand throws – during the follow-through, to be more specific. En route to finalizing a throw, the back toe drags and pivots. Eventually, the same repeated motion leads to holes.

It’s interesting to juxtapose the beauty of beaten discs with the horror of hole-ridden shoes. Trashed plastic slices through fairways with flight paths new, out-of-the-box discs are simply incapable of replicating. In fact, it’s not uncommon for golfers to intentionally beat their discs.

Busted shoes, though?

The result’s less sexy:

• Issue No. 1 – Wet socks.
• Issue No. 2 – Big-toe pain.
• Issue No. 3 – Wasted money.

Here’s my biggest beef with toe-drag holes, though …

As a backhand-dominant player, the inside toe of my left shoe gets demolished.

But that’s ALL that gets demolished.

As a result, I’m left with a relatively clean pair of new-ish shoes, 97% of which function as they were intended. Yup, you guessed it: The remaining 3% is claimed by that pesky hole that might as well be the size of the Grand Canyon when walking through a lush, freshly watered field.

In case you weren’t already aware, shoes come in pairs: There are no one-off offers. So a pair of shoes with ONE annoying hole in the toe is virtually as good as no shoes – they both suck.

Check out these KEEN hiking boots that (literally) lasted three months …

Brutal.

There is hope, though …

If you’ve got thin feet and don’t mind low-top sneakers, consider giving the Vans UltraRange EXO MTE-1 a whirl. Vans makes skateboarding shoes. But for some odd reason, they took a stab at hiking shoes, too. The result is a shoe with a toe that actually lasts – for now, at least.

Six months strong and counting.

Is this a problem? For many, yes.

Is there a solution? Well, maybe …

Time will tell.

Have anything to add? Take to Twitter to let us know – we’ll actually (for real) get back to you.

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