Can Golf Insoles Actually Add Distance?

The most ignored piece of golf equipment sits inside the shoe. Golfers will spend a year testing driver heads for four yards of carry, then play a factory insole that was never designed for a golf swing. Two recent reports measured what happens when you change that one variable, and the numbers are bigger than most club upgrades deliver.

The first is a pilot study run at Harbour Plaza Golf Club in November 2025 by Kevin Smeltz, a Golf Magazine Top 100 Teachers alumnus, and PGA professional Jason Wu. The study was independently conducted, with no payment or involvement from Blumaka. Forty-one golfers hit five 7-irons and five drivers in their own shoes, then repeated the test with Blumaka performance insoles and no practice shots in between. Every swing was captured on a Foresight GCQuad launch monitor while the golfer stood on Smart2Move force plates. With the driver, 80% of participants increased carry distance, with a mean gain of 8.8 yards. With the 7-iron, the mean gain was 6.5 yards. The force plates offered the explanation: peak vertical ground force rose in roughly 73% of measured swings. The authors are careful to call it a pilot, single site and acute effects only, but the direction of the data is hard to argue with.

The second report comes from Connor Moore, a professional golfer with a PhD in bioengineering who studied force generation in elite baseball players. Moore ran the experiment on himself: 100 shots per club before the insoles and 100 after, distances adjusted for weather and altitude with on-course tracking. His driver average went from 296 yards to 323. His 3-wood went from 262 to 280. He also reports a quieter benefit. He used to wear through four or five insoles a season; the Blumaka pair lasted the year.

The mechanism behind both reports is the same. A swing is force applied to the ground, and any movement inside the shoe leaks that force before it reaches the ball. A grip-top performance insole locks the foot to the platform, so more of what you generate arrives at the clubface, and the same connection speeds up lateral reactions when you move sideways instead of swinging.

We sell that insole. The SUBTXT performance insole uses Blumaka's NonSlip technology on top of the same recycled foam that runs through every MACAW, and it comes half off with any pair of our shoes. Both reports are linked here in full, because data this specific should be read, not summarized.

Blumaka NonSlip technology, up to 85% recycled foam. Read the reports: Harbour Plaza pilot study and Connor Moore's distance report.