adidas MC80 Spikeless Performance Review

To paraphrase one of my childhood idols – I’m sorry adidas, I was unfamiliar with your game. The adidas MC80 Spikeless is the real deal.

Last year I had the opportunity to test out the adidas Ultraboost Golf and was truly blown away by how good they felt, looked and performed. Making a comfortable pair of spikeless golf shoes that resemble something you could wear on a run isn’t particularly hard these days – almost every manufacturer is doing that.

Something that a lot of manufacturers are trying (and failing) at though is to create a spikeless shoe that performs like their running counterparts but has the looks of a traditional golf shoe. This is the area of the market that adidas might have just cornered though, because the adidas MC80 Spikeless is one of the best golf shoes that I’ve ever had the privilege of putting on my feet. 

When I first started talking to Drew about reviewing golf shoes, one of the things we talked about was the overall quality of every golf shoe on the market. It seems like everyone has at least one solid pair of shoes in the yearly releases, so what I wanted to focus on was deciding who the best of the best were.

Last year FootJoy laid down the gauntlet with their HyperFlex Carbon shoes, a shoe that I loved so much that I closed the review saying, “If there is a better golf shoe on the market than the FootJoy HyperFlex Carbon, I would like to see it because I can’t imagine that possibility.” At the time of writing that review I couldn’t conceive how anyone could create a better golf shoe than that one, but I think the adidas MC80 Spikeless might have done it and I can’t wait to explain why!

Style

As you can see in the pictures, adidas went for the traditional aesthetic with the MC80 Spikeless, and they completely nailed it. I’m someone who prefers spikeless golf shoes but don’t always love looking like I just got done at the gym or finished running a 5k (nothing wrong with that Drew, I’m just one of the worst runners in history). With these shoes though, I won’t have to make that type of sacrifice any more.

The premium, all leather upper features brogue style detailing and is accented by metal logo accents that really set off the entire look. As of right now, the adidas MC80 Spikeless is available in 5 colorways – each one with an accent color to bring just a touch of modern sensibility.    

Traction

When I reviewed the Ultraboost golf shoes last year, traction was the only category that I found them to be lacking. I compared them to the ultra-aggressive traction pattern of the UA Charged Curry Spikeless and they just didn’t match up.

So when I tested the adidas MC80 Spikeless, I thought I knew what I was going to be up agains. But like the first line of this review – I was unfamiliar with adidas’ game. The TPU outsole of this shoe has close to 100 lugs on the bottom of the shoe and they’re strategically placed to make sure that the connection to the ground is always maintained during the golf swing. The first round I played in these shoes was 24 hours after a torrential downpour and I didn’t slip once. 

Cushion

When I first saw the adidas MC80 Spikeless, I had one thought – how bad are these going to hurt my heels and the balls of my feet? Even knowing that the MC80 had the always comfortable Boost in the midsole I was still suspicious of how these would feel after 4+ hours of wear on the course. Those suspicions were unfounded though because the adidas MC80 Spikeless is COMFORTABLE. So comfortable that I wanted to wear them on the ride home from the golf course that day (and I probably would have had they not been so wet from the rain the day before). 

Support

In keeping with the theme of this review, the support that the adidas MC80 Spikeless offers is outstanding. The combination of the leather upper and the TPU outsole featuring a Torsion bar managed to keep me locked in for every shot that I took.

If I had to take adidas to task with anything about these shoes though, it might be the laces. The laces on these shoes most closely resemble the type you would find on a dress shoe and I found myself having to retie them a couple of times during each round. I initially thought that I might just need a refresher on the most basic of tasks, but it seems other people online have had a similar experience. 

adidas MC80 Spikeless Summary

When the only negative I can think of with a shoe is the laces – I might be wearing something pretty spectacular.

In a world where quality is everywhere it takes something truly special to set itself apart. And with the adidas MC80 Spikeless, that’s what adidas has managed to do. They’re quite simply the best golf shoes I have ever worn and I can’t recommend them highly enough.