Product Review: Nike Air Zoom Vapor Golf Shoes

When you are going to play thirty-six holes on an epic links course with severe terrain changes that adds up to a seven mile walk per round, it is very important that you have shoes on your feet that can keep you comfortable for the full day.

Needless to say, the Nike Air Zoom Vapors performed completely inline with expectations once again.

After thirty-six, my feet were ready for another eighteen, while one of my playing partners had to change shoes between rounds and claimed that any more golf would have to be played barefoot.

Key performance criteria that the Vapors lived up to at Chambers Bay, despite 70-80 degree weather:

1) Feet felt dry throughout the round and did not slip around in the shoe
2) No blisters on back of heel even after 36
3) Light weight shoes stayed light by shedding excess moisture
4) Traction was good on shots, as well as on long uphill climbs or downhill descents over sandy paths

If you are a serious walking golfer, play a few rounds in the Vapors this summer and your feet will be happy you gave them a try.

Check out them out at Nike Golf.com.

How to Clean your Nike Air Zoom Vapors (3/28/09)

The early spring is rarely a dry time in Oregon. As you can see from the review below, golf shoes get wet, muddy and dirty each and every round.Another benefit of the Nike Vapor Golf Shoe is easy cleaning. The one-piece microfiber upper can be cleaned with a soft brush and water. As you can see in the pic below, I scrubbed my Vapors this morning and then look brand new.

The golfer has no need to worry about ruining the surface of the shoe with a brush, or the need to shine a leather upper after it gets wet.

Just roll up your sleeves, clean off your Vapors, let them dry out and you will be good to go for the next round.

During the round, I think we experienced every type of rain imaginable - Noah’s Arc rain, drizzle, sideways rain, hurricane wind driven rain, sun showers, etc. – and after putting out on eighteen my feet were pretty darn comfortable considering what had transpired in the previous four and a half hours. When you get back to the club house and there has been a power failure, well, it probably confirms that we should not have been out there in the first place.

The fairways were wet, with standing water in places, the rough was swampy and muddy, and I had my worst round of the year, but the Vapors still did their job.

Wet jacket, wet pants, wet socks above the ankle, mud everywhere, but my feet were dry and happy no matter what mother nature threw at us.

After a scrubbing the bright yellow is coming back to life and I know the Vapors will live to fight another day when many other golf shoes would have been destined for the garbage after turning my feet into prunes.

Updated Review: Wear testing continues (3/1/09)

The Walking Golfer, after about ten rounds in varied conditions at Pumpkin Ridge – Ghost Creek, will stand by the claim that these are the BEST walking golf shoes the author has ever worn.Recent soggy and muddy conditions have not phased the Vapors and they continue to keep my feet comfortable and dry. They do not get heavy in the rain or absorb water like other golf shoes I have worn in the past. Light and dry is a good thing.

Furthermore, blister issues have been non-existent. Almost every golf shoe I have ever worn, regardless of brand, has given me blisters where the achilles meets the top of the heel cup. A little duct tape can prevent this annoyance, but that should not be necessary.

From day one the Vapors have been comfortable in while providing excellent support. The microfiber upper has superior tensile strength versus leather which means your foot stays on the last when you really hit into the left side with a driver. Your Vapors will not blow out and they do not turn to mush when they get wet like many leather shoes.

The designers at Nike used the Mercurial Vapor Football boot as inspiration for this golf shoe, which explains the excellent stability and non-existent slippage of the heel cup. The torquing of the plant foot is not that different in golf and soccer, so it makes sense that technology that works on a football pitch can also be applied to the fairway.

The Nike Air Zoom Vapors will be good for eighteen, thirty-six, or fifty-four (if you should be so lucky!).

I will echo my sentiments from the First Impressions Review below – if you are a walking golfer, you NEED these on your feet.

First Impressions: Nike Air Zoom Vapor Golf Shoes

When you pick up a pair of Nike Air Zoom Vapors and compare them to your current golf shoes the weight difference is shocking. These babies are light, extremely light, like 13.8 ounces light. Are these golf shoes or track shoes?The Vapors are offered in four colorways. In typical Nike fashion there is a “disruptive” story in the Yellow and White, a tamer color option in the Blue/White, a classic faded look in the White/Black and a more traditional Black/Silver design.

The Vapors are very comfortable, probably the most comfortable golf shoes I have ever worn right out of the box. I forgot to take them off after the round and they worked just fine in the super market when I stopped to get groceries on the way home!

The fit is also excellent, which must be a combination of the microfibre upper and the contoured sockliner which form to your feet. I usually some slippage in the heel with new golf shoes, which can lead to annoying and painful blisters, but that was a non-issue with the Vapors.

My feet stayed dry and comfortable throughout the round despite some rather soggy conditions. I would expect nothing less from a performance golf shoe but I have been disappointed with numerous brands on many occasions in the past. It will be interesting to give the two year waterproof guarantee a test on a rainy Oregon day to see how they really hold up.

Not only is the walking comfort outstanding, but the wide platform on the heel and solid foundation through the forefoot provide excellent support during the golf swing and the Champ Scorpion Stinger soft spikes provide great traction regardless of lie and conditions. They are a walking golfers dream.

The Nike Air Zoom Vapor sets a new precedent for golf shoes with a template that simply has not been used before in this industry. Gone is the stiff bulky leather and layered fabrics of the past that were required to create stability and support. In their place, we now have lightweight performance materials that give the golfer exactly what he or she needs and not an ounce more.

If you are a walking golfer, you NEED to get the Vapors on your feet.

The MSRP is $175, but I have seen them trading for around $139 at various online golf stores.

For more information, check out the Nike Air Zoom Vapor Golf Shoes at

Nike Golf.com.Review by Rob Rigg, Feb – 2009