THE BUSINESS OF GOLF By Bill Huffman


Jack Grace films a commercial for its men’s and women’s Innovator saddle shoes at a local Scottsdale resort (left). Jack Grace owner Bart Walker and his family, including wife Erinn, daughter Ellie and son William. The name Jack Grace derived from Ellie’s and William’s middle names.


A family story: Jack Grace Golf Shoes


when the lightbulb went on. He had always had this unexplainable thing for shoes as well as a love affair with the game of golf. Walker decided that he was going to invent the best golf shoe to ever hit the market.


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art Walker was just a young man, a husband with two kids and a wife and a great job working for U.S. Bank,


“I didn’t start out to own a shoe


company, but I was overly curious about trying to build a better golf shoe,” said Walker, 39, who began his quest in 2014. “So I sat down at our kitchen table


and chopped up some of my golf shoes – no big deal because I had 15 to 20 pairs -- took the chopped-up pairs to a shoe tailor and asked him: ‘How can I make a better shoe?’ ”


Five years later, Walker is finally beginning to get an answer as the owner of Tempe-based Jack Grace Golf Shoes. It takes a lot of work, a lot of hustle, a strong commitment, a good team behind you, and a lot of money! Oh, yes, and you need a plan and a product, which in Walker’s case led to the Jack Grace Innovator golf shoe for men and women. A hot-selling saddle shoe that has logoed and interchangeable saddles and is much different than what the big boys like Nike, adidas and Footjoy are doing these days. “First and foremost, and I can’t


tell you why, I’ve always loved shoes, dating back to when I was a kid,” said the long-time Phoenix resident who graduated from Arizona State. “As a single guy I collected golf shoes, but as I grew older, got married and had a couple of kids, I realized I didn’t need 15 to 20 pairs of golf shoes. Even so, I kept buying them, especially saddle shoes and shoes of quality.” Golf had been in Walker’s veins,


ever since his first job at Club West, where he washed carts and picked the range while attending Mountain Pointe High School. And even though


www.azgolf.org


JACK GRACE GOLF SHOES


JACK GRACE GOLF SHOES


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