Payntr Golf is riding a huge wave of momentum right now. Its Eighty Seven SC spiked shoe was a clear outright winner of the best golf shoe from 2025 after my extensive testing, and the brand has started 2026 with a flourish.
Now with Jason Day, Min Woo Lee, Sam Burns and plenty of others donning the Payntr logo on Tour, there is some serious impetus behind a brand that started life as a cricket shoe manufacturer some ten years ago. Even Justin Rose, not officially associated with the brand, and who has free choice of what shoe to use, has been using Payntr over the last 18 months.
This latest release - the Reserve Classic RS - looks to supplement the already extensive lineup that Payntr has been developing while also bringing down the price point of its £200 top-of-the-line model, the Eighty Seven SC.
Spoiler alert: the Reserve Classic RS is very, very similar to the Eighty Seven SC, with one key piece of technology removed to bring this shoe into a slightly more manageable price point for some.
Looks-wise, this is very similar to the Eighty Seven SC. Very low profile and classically shaped, the only difference from far away is the brown stitching that runs just above the midsole. It's a smart-looking shoe, and the attention to detail on the design is second-to-none.
Many of the best technologies that made the Eighty Seven SC my favourite shoe last year are present in the Reserve Classic RS. That includes the Clarino Trivela microfibre upper, PMX Foam midsole, and the Fast Twist insert system on the outsole.
I love the upper material used on Payntr shoes. It's soft to the touch, reasonably breathable, fully waterproof, and looks great too.
The only tech that isn't carried over is the carbon fibre propulsion plate that sat between the outsole and midsole on the Eighty Seven SC. In its place comes a PMX Speed Plate, built to allow golfers to more effectively harness ground reaction forces.
It's the same, principally, as the carbon fibre version, just without using carbon fibre. The technology does a great job of allowing you to get the most out of your swing speed using the ground reaction forces happening as you transition through the move of the golf swing.
Golfers with a slower swing speed are unlikely to feel the tangible benefits of this technology, but faster players will no doubt feel the little extra help under the sole as they fly through a driver swing.
Is the carbon fibre substitute any better or worse? Honestly, at my 100mph driver swing speed, it is really hard to tell, so it didn't feel like anything resembling a downgrade to me.
This is another shoe that really nicely balances the mixture of softness and firmness underfoot. You need softness to offer comfort when walking, but not so much that the shoe can't support the foot through the swing. With the mixture of the propulsion plate and the PMX Foam in the midsole, the Reserve Class RS is a comfortable shoe that performs brilliantly.
As with all Payntr shoes I've ever tested, the outsole is one of the best features of the shoe. The TPU outsole uses seven spikes in total to offer complete traction in all conditions. Despite this, it manages to remain incredibly low profile, and you feel very close to the ground, unlike on something like the G/FORE MG4+ O2 Lock, where you feel quite far away from the ground.
It's hard to know what role this shoe is trying to play, other than to hit a price point. Undoubtedly, it has done that brilliantly, while also maintaining as many of the best Payntr technologies as possible.
Those who swing their driver at anything less than 110mph (which, for the record, will be most of you reading, myself included) simply won't see the benefits of the carbon fibre footplate in the Eighty Seven SC, making this 'cheaper' version a more than viable alternative. With that in mind, trimming this technology out, making the design look and feel so similar and reducing the price point is a very clever move from Payntr that will likely make its technology-packed shoes even more accessible to a wider range of golfers.
