What golf shoes are NOT made in China?

Golfers take their shoes very seriously. After all, they are an important part of our game. We need shoes that will help us play our best and make our game more enjoyable. So, it’s no surprise that many golfers (or Americans in general) are concerned about where their shoes are made.

While many golf-related items are manufactured in china, most golf shoes are also made there, including some of the most popular and well-known golf shoe brands are made in China.

This can be a bit of a problem because of many reasons that we’ll discuss in this article. But don’t worry, we’ll also give you a few suggestions for shoes that are not made in China.

List of Golf Shoe Brands that produce out of China

This is a simple table that summarises my research,
if you want more detail about each brand, then keep scrolling.
The rating below are arranged according to my preferences using the criteria below:

• Quality of the craftsmanship
• Creativity of the designs

Brand	Origin	Made in	Price Range	Rating	Comments
DUCA DEL COSMA	Italian	Italy	$80-$250	10/10	Excellent Style + Value for money
Nebuloni	Italian	Italy	$500-$3000	9/10	Top Quality, Few designs
LAMBDA	Portuguese	Portugal	$250-$350	8/10	Top customer service
Adhoc	Italian	Italy	$250-$450	7/10	3-5 weeks waiting
Royal Albartross	British	Italy & Portugal	$99-$350	6/10	Casual & Athletic styles
Leonardo	Italian	Italy	$340	4/10	Few boring designs
Nike	American	Vietnam & China	$50-$300	5/10	Scroll below for more info
New Balance	American	USA, UK & China	$60-$100	5/10	Scroll below for more info
Adidas	German	USA, Canada, China, Japan	$50-$200	5/10	Scroll below for more info
ECCO	Denmark	Europe & Asia	$100-$650	5/10	Scroll below for more info
Puma	German	Vietnam, China & others	$60-$250	5/10	Scroll below for more info

DUCA DEL COSMA

Founded in 2004 in Italy, the Duca del Cosma brand has grown to be an international success story. The company specializes in high-end handmade golf shoes and apparel for both men & women.
-> Click here to visit Duca Del Cosma.

What’s good about DUCA DEL COSMA?

• Handmade in Italy
• Reasonable prices & great value for money
• Huge range of golf shoe styles, colours & materials
• Reliable customer support
• Free & Fast international shipping to most countries
• 30-day satisfaction period or a 100% refund.

Nebuloni

It’s a 100-year-old brand that makes high-end luxurious golf shoes made in Italy.
-> Click here to visit Nebuloni.

What’s good about Nebuloni?

• Handmade in Italy (not China)
• Specialists in Golf shoes (over 100 years in business)
• Super high-quality (the Rolex of golf shoes)
• Made of All-natural materials
• Super comfort & breathability
• Highly customizable to your preferences
• Trusted & worn by Golf celebrities like Miguel Ángel Jiménez & Gary Player

What’s bad about Nebuloni?

• Probably the most expensive on the market
• Limited to only All-Leather Golf shoes

LAMBDA

LAMBDA was founded in 2009 in Portugal, Europe and is focused mainly on producing Classic luxury & high-end leather golf shoes for both Men & Women.
-> Click here to visit LAMBDA.

What’s good about LAMBDA?

• Handmade in Europe (not China)
• Specialists in Golf shoes
• Extremely high quality & stylish (better than most big brands)
• They make both Spiked & Spikeless
• Waterproof
• Free International Shipping
• Free International Size Exchange returns!
• Free International Warranty

What’s bad about LAMBDA?

• Not cheap, as you’d guess it’s made of premium high leather, handmade (not in China).
• They don’t have athletic designs

ADHOC Golf Bespoke

ADHOC is a golf shoe brand that only makes customised golf shoes, and you get to choose every little component (colour, leather, finish, width etc) so they can craft a golf shoe that is unique to only you.
-> Click here to visit ADHOC.

What’s good about ADHOC?

• Handmade in Italy (not China)
• 3D visualisation of your custom shoes before ordering
• Available in Spiked & Spikeless
• Super comfortable spikeless golf shoes that can be also used outside the golf course
• Free shipping to USA, Europe & other countries
• Easy to contact via Whatsapp & email

What’s bad about ADHOC?

• Reasonably expensive (I’d say it’s great value for money)
• Orders take 3-5 weeks of work
• Can’t return them unless there’s a fault or mistake (which is reasonable)

Royal Albartross

Royal Albartross is a golf shoe brand based in London UK and their aim is to produce the world’s finest golf shoes, that are designed in the UK and handmade in Italy & Portugal.
-> Click here to visit Royal Albartross.

What’s good about Royal Albartross?

• Handmade in Europe (Italy & Portugal)
• Wide range of styles (Classic, Casual & Athletic shoes)
• Highly comfortable, light, grippy and stable golf shoes
• Reasonably priced for the level of quality (great value for money)
• Free Fast Shipping to USA (they also pay import duties!)
• They also produce other golf products (bags, gloves etc)

What’s bad about Royal Albartross?

• Classic golf shoes are sometimes sold out

Leonardo

Leonardo is a fashion brand that was established in 1994 in Italy for making luxury handmade shoes.
-> Click here to visit Leonardo.

What’s good about LAMBDA?

• Handmade in Italy (not China)
• High-quality golf shoes

What’s bad about LAMBDA?

• Not many styles/colors available
• It’s a luxury fashion brand and not Golf specialists, they also sell jackets, bags, accessories etc

Nike

Nike is a well-known brand that produces golf shoes, and according to our research, Nike doesn’t make their shoes in a particular country.
-> Click here to visit Nike.

In fact, they produce in the following countries in order:

1. Vietnam (36%)
2. China (36%)
3. Indonesia (22%)
4. Thailand (6%)

The problem is though, you wouldn’t know the origin of a particular golf shoe until it arrives at your door.

New Balance

The majority of NB golf shoes are made in China, BUT they have a Collection that is non-Chinese (Made in the UK and New England, USA)

• USA – https://www.newbalance.com/made-in-the-usa/ 
• UK – https://www.newbalance.co.uk/made-in-us-and-uk/

Adidas

Adidas is also one of the big brands that seem to be gradually moving its business away from China. Currently, China produces around a quarter of the Adidas shoes (including Golf shoes).

The remaining are made in Japan, Canada, and the USA.

ECCO

ECCO’s golf shoes are produced in its own shoe factories in Portugal, Slovakia, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam and China, and some are under licence in India.

Footjoy

There are online sources that say Footjoy also started to diversify their production and now they make their shoes in Mexico and also China, but they aren’t any proof of that on their official website.
The only proof I found was that FJ was this, back in 2010 the president of Footjoy (Jim Connor) publicly posted that they are producing all of the shoes in China.

Puma

Puma golf shoes are manufactured in China, Vietnam, Cambodia, Bangladesh and Indonesia.

Why do big brands manufacture their products in China?

• Cheap labour AND material costs (which means higher profits)

China’s manufacturing costs are generally lower than most other countries, which in turn helps businesses to make their products cheaper and gives them a competitive advantage in the marketplace by selling at a lower price, which in turn leads to more sales and profits.

• Faster production and scalability (can produce high quantities quickly)

China is arguably the country with the highest number of factories and workers, this will allow businesses to produce high quantities of their products in a shorter time frame as well as increase the quantities of products that can be made without delays in case of a sudden increase of sales of a particular product.

• International expansion

China’s geographical location makes it easy to ship to almost any country around the world with ease and is currently the world’s top country in terms of exports.

• Easy to work with (especially startups)

Many small businesses may find it difficult to work with manufacturers in the USA because they usually only work with either established businesses or start-ups with big capital to invest. However, it’s possible to start with a small order from china for less than $500.

Why Golfers are boycotting Chinese-made products?

• To save & support local jobs.

Boycotting Chinese products saves local jobs because then American companies will have to start making their own products. This will create more jobs in America and help to reduce the unemployment rate.

Also, it encourages people to buy things that are made in their own country. When people do that, they support the people who work in those factories and businesses.

This helps to keep those jobs in the community, which is what we need in order to keep our economy strong.

• To save our tax money

Reduce the amount of money that goes to China. This means that our tax money can be used for other things, like schools, roads and bridges.

• To save our environment

Chinese factories are notorious for polluting the air and water with toxic chemicals in any industry, whether it’s food, clothing, plastic etc, and Golf equipment and shoes are no different.

• To stop becoming increasingly dependent on them.

Becoming less dependent on them also encourages other brands to begin manufacturing their golf equipment, which will create more jobs and bring back some of the money that has been leaving our shores.

• Human rights violations

It’s been reported that China is involved in human rights abuses against some minority groups like Uyghurs.

• China’s Unfair competition by using cheap and underpaid labour

China has a reputation of abusing workers that are overworked & underpaid, which could be one of the reasons why they’re able to produce at such low costs.

• Most of the products made there are of low quality, which means less value for money and will not last long.

You probably already know this, but it’s not always the case. Chinese factories are able to mass-produce at low costs, which is why the cheapest products in the market are almost always made in China. However, locally made products have a reputation of being of higher quality.

• Stealing American/European product designs/ideas/patents

It’s easy for a Chinese company to steal a patented design/product, then produce it and sell it back to the USA, do you know why this is possible?

Because product patents aren’t valid worldwide, if a business wants to patent a product in the USA, it’s only valid in the USA. It’s very expensive to patent a product in every country. This is what allows Chinese businesses to get away with stealing designs.

This isn’t a problem for big international brands like Nike or Adidas that can afford to file a patent everywhere.

How Golf brands responded to boycotting China?

1- Do nothing, and continue to make golf shoes in China

Most brands continue to produce in China because it is very cost-effective since labour costs and material costs are much lower, the manufacturing facilities are already established and the workers are already trained, so moving to a new country means they need to buy equipment and train workers from scratch. Additionally, the speed of production is high and can be relied upon before shopping seasons like Black Friday & New Year.

2- Being deceptive with their words

Continue to make shoes in China but for example: “Made in USA or imported“

Some of the most popular golf shoes brands are using these sneaky phrases on their online listings, especially on Amazon.

If you see that, then it’s most probably made in China, and the brand is aware of the negative perception of importing from China, so they decide to hide this fact and play with the words on the listing.

3- Start producing in other countries

Big brands like Nike started producing their golf shoes in other countries like Mexico, Vietnam, Italy, Pakistan etc so they can minimise the controversy that is associated with China.

4- Avoiding China completely

I’m not aware of a big brand that has done this yet, but a dozen of smaller brands that I’ve mentioned below make their golf shoes 100% in Europe.

How to avoid buying Chinese-made golf shoes?

• Read the label:

If you’re in a shop or a mall, you can easily find out where it’s made.

• Ask the seller/brand

If it’s a well-known brand you should be able to find this information easily by doing a quick search. However, if it’s one of the unpopular brands, then it’s worth it to shoot them a quick email and ask.