I’ve dealt with dozens of great golf companies in my years as a golf blogger. Of all the great companies I’ve worked with the absolute coolest is Ogio. Ogio’s designers take every day products which haven’t changed in decades and turn them into amazingly hip, modern, useful, ergonomic and very reasonably priced pieces.
The Ogio Shoester
A golf shoe bag on steroids
We all have the basic golf shoe bag. You know the fabric ones with a draw string which may or may not have a divide down the middle of the bag? I’ve got three or four of them. They don’t really protect the shoe from impact or help keep the shoe’s shape. Those old school golf shoe bags just keep your shoes together and prevent them from getting dirty in the trunk of your car.
The Shoester is a golf shoe bag. Not much you can do with “technology” and design, right? Wrong! Once again Ogio took an every day item and transformed it.
No draw string
The first thing Ogio did was get rid of that damn draw string. Thank you very much. In it’s place you have a zipper which closes the top of the Shoester. Rather than a draw string, a reinforced neoprene handle is what you use to carry this industrial strength golf shoe bag.
Compartments made for shoes, not marbles
I always felt like my other shoe bags were more like marble bags. Just shove the shoes in any way they’d fit and draw the string. The spikes would catch on the sides of the fabric and make the shoes hard to get in sometimes. Getting the shoes out would be just as much of a pain, and the shoes would be bent into all sorts of funky shapes when they came out. One shoe bag I had was very irritating. It had a wimpy divider which hooked on my shoe spikes. Every time I’d put the shoes in, the spikes would snag on it and rip it more down the middle.
The Shoester has actual compartments specially designed for shoes. There’s no shoving, pushing, cramming the shoes in. The shoes easily lay down on their bottoms since the zippered opening is several times bigger than the average draw string bag. The footprint of the Shoester has the same profile as the shoes so there’s no smashing or bending of the shoes. A divider goes down the middle to keep the shoes organized and prevent them from scuffing each other up.
The compartment has a no slip PVC lining which is ventilated. The case would otherwise be fairly air tight and a total breeding ground for foot odor. Ogio recommends you put a dryer sheet in with your shoes: “Do us a favor though – toss in one of those dryer sheets so the stank doesn’t get all over this great bag.” Pretty smart…
Air ’em out
There’s a 2nd loop on the opposite end of the bag from the handle. With this loop you can open the bag and hang your shoe bag in the open position from your locker, a door knob or anywhere in order to air them out. The pic I have is of a door in my hotel room on a golf trip when I was airing out my shoes for the next day.
Colors and specs
The 14.5″ x 11″ x 5″ Shoester is available in four colors: Black (pictured), Fire (red), Indigo (blue) and Tweed (tan). The Shoester can hold shoes up to size 14.
Critic’s corner
Ogio’s warranty on it’s product line is for the lifetime of the product, unless you are a golfer. What? Ogio’s golf product line only carries a one year warranty. Isn’t that some form of discrimination or something?
Conclusion
If Ogio made toilet paper I’d stop using Charmin. If Ogio built cars I’d sell the BMW. If Ogio made coffee I’d stop going to Starbucks. If Ogio made condoms… well I think you get the point.
You can find Ogio products online at Edwin Watts Golf.
Check out the Hooked On Golf Blog Ogio Gallery for photos of dozens of Ogio products.
HOGWire – Golf Industry News
