Puma PROADAPT Delta Performance Review

The Puma PROADAPT Delta does a lot of the things well, but is it enough to set it apart from the myriad of other TOUR-level spiked golf shoes? Innovation within the golf space is already hard enough, and on initial impressions, the Puma PROADAPT Delta seems promising…but left me wondering what it offers that other great performers don’t.

Pros

ADAPT Foam

I found the Puma PROADAPT Delta to have a fantastic cushion setup, thanks in large part to the generous amount of ADAPT Foam in the heel. According to Puma, the ADAPT Foam was specifically formulated for golf and strikes a balance between stability and comfort.

From the moment I laced up the Puma PROADAPT Delta, I knew I was going to enjoy the ride. The step-in comfort was there, but it wasn’t until I started my first round that I really noticed how awesome the ADAPT Foam setup really is.

Puma’s claims of great energy return, stability, comfort, and ground-feel are spot on. I love to read marketing lingo and then find that the performance backs up what’s being advertised.

Finding the perfect balance between comfort and ground feel is a difficult task. As I’ve mentioned in the past, if the cushion is too plush it can cause you to lose ground feel, and thus lose some stability. The Puma PROADAPT Delta felt bouncy, springy, but still low-profile enough to give me that ground feel I need to stay connected to my lower half through the swing.

Whether you’re walking or riding, you’ll appreciate the step-in comfort, the bouncy feel, and smooth ride as your weight shifts through the swing.

Traction

Spiked traction is honestly pretty hard to mess up, so it’s rare that you’re going to see a spiked golf shoe miss on this category. Naturally the Puma PROADAPT Delta was stellar in the traction area, thanks to Puma’s Tornado Cleat and PWRADAPT 3D traction combo.

The PWRADAPT 3D traction is the same traction you’ll find on Puma’s other spiked shoes. The traction is made up of 8 Tornado Cleats, which provide excellent grip in all directions.

To take the traction a step further, Puma added some flex grooves to the TPU outsole in high-flex areas, which I found to work really well. The bigger groove near the toe was extremely helpful when making the finishing move in my swing where I push off of my back foot and shift almost all of my weight to the front.

Materials

If you’re going to put up the two bills it takes to purchase a pair of these, you darn sure better get good materials. The Puma PROADAPT Delta is made from premium full-grain Atlantis leather.

I found the leather upper to be soft, supple, and plenty flexible. Besides feeling great, it just looks stunning as well. Puma really knocked it out of the park with the materials and aesthetics on this shoe, the materials are easily on par with any of the other premium TOUR shoes like the FootJoy Field.

Cons

ADAPT Wrap Tongue

Now for some of the bad, despite the excellent materials that I raved about above, I think Puma could have done a better job at implementing them, specifically on the tongue. Instead of a normal tongue, the Puma PROADAPT Delta features what Puma is calling an ADAPT Wrap Tongue, which is a fancy way of saying it’s attached on one side, similar to a tongue you might find on a bootie-style soccer cleat.

For me, I found this to be a little annoying. I didn’t find it to really have a purpose, even though Puma mentions it providing medial support, I found that to be mostly untrue. If anything, I though the ADAPT Wrap Tongue made the shoe less comfortable.

This is not a deal-breaker by any means, but I think Puma was doing too much here.

Adaptive Fit Collar

Again I think Puma was trying to do a little too much with the collar on the Puma PROADAPT Delta. The collar of the shoe connects to the ADAPT Wrap Tongue that was mentioned above, to form a little liner or bootie within the upper of the shoe.

According to Puma, this was supposed to provide a “running shoe” style fit, which I had a hard time feeling in my own testing. If anything, I felt like my heel was slipping out of the collar more due to this Adaptive Fit Collar, rather than it providing a more one-to-one fit like a running shoe.

Puma PROADAPT Delta Summary

Puma is known for being one of the big innovators within the golf space, at least in the club industry with their golf equipment subsidiary Cobra Golf. However in this case, Puma missed on some of their innovations.

The Puma PROADAPT Delta is a fantastic feeling and looking shoe, with some problems that could have been avoided had Puma focused less on being different and more on nailing the basics.

If you’re going to purchase these, buy them for the great cushion, the premium materials, and the good traction. If you’re looking for something that is leagues ahead of the competition, then you’re going to be disappointed.