VKTRY Performance Insoles Review

Whether you’re looking to compete in long drive or simply out-drive your friends off the tee on a weekend round, increasing your clubhead speed and hitting the ball further is something every golfer longs to do. Most of the time, this would require a serious change in technique, one of the best golf drivers or endless hours in the gym, which, let’s be honest, nobody particularly wants to do. The team at VKTRY has designed a carbon fiber plated insole, that it believes can create more energy return in the golf swing and therefore increase clubhead speed and total distance. But at £121 a pair, how much performance is on offer?

Before getting started, it’s worth noting that if nothing else, these insoles certainly look the part. The carbon fiber really stands out on the sole and the gold and black detailing provide a premium aesthetic. As someone who is currently trying to recoup some speed lost through a shoulder injury, I was very excited to get on the Trackman 4 launch monitor at My Golf Matters, Berkshire and see if these VKTRY performance insoles could work their magic and give me a little speed boost without having to push my body to hard.

The VKTRY insoles are direct replacements for your shoes' stock insoles, so you will need to remove your current insoles before adding these ones. Upon first use I found them fairly hard to get into narrower pairs of shoes, such as my FootJoy Premiere series, considered one of the best spiked golf shoes, however they slotted into my casual indoor golf shoes, the Nike Air Max very easily. Once inside, they certainly took a little getting used to as they felt significantly firmer than the insoles I had in those shoes before. Like I mentioned earlier, my first test in these shoes was indoors and this testing session was all about speed. 

I gathered all my data with my regular insoles before diving into the comparison session with the VKTRY insoles. I started off with wedges before progressing through the irons and then onto the driver where I wasn’t trying to swing it as hard as I could, but swing it as if I were on the course and trying to still hit a fairway. This way I knew the performance would be replicated on the course rather than If I was just lashing at the ball as hard as I could indoors.

Did I gain speed and distance while using the VKTRY Performance insoles? Unfortunately, no. As you can see from the data (below) with the average of 10 drives from both my standard insoles and the VKTRY performance insoles, I actually swung the club nearly 1mph faster and produced a solid 2mph more ball speed in my current factory insoles.

Now this doesn’t necessarily mean the VKTRY insoles should be immediately written off. Our bodies get used to how things feel and if we are comfortable in what we are already using, we often swing more freely than we do in something we are not used to or that feels different. Perhaps over a longer period of time, the VKTRY insoles will provide some performance gains, but anyone looking for a quick fix won't get it here.

VKTRY claim these performance insoles aid foot protection and stability and so I did play 18 holes while carrying my bag after my testing and found the insoles did to provide good levels of comfort and actually helped me out with my mild case of plantar fasciitis. I experienced far less pain in my foot after playing with the VKTRY insoles.

In summary, I was a little disappointed with the initial testing performance, especially for the price of £121 a pair, but I believe the VKTRY performance insoles may come good over time if I was to wear them regularly and get used to them under my feet. But given the price tag, I was expecting a little more straight out of the gate.