Father’s Day falls this year during U.S. Open week at Shinnecock Hills, a timing that feels poetic.
Established in 1891, Shinnecock Hills Golf Club is one of the USGA’s five founding clubs and one of the game’s most storied stretches of Long Island linksland. It’s fitting, then, that FootJoy and Todd Snyder chose this week to launch their sixth collaboration: the Premiere Series Marquis and Premiere Series Packard, longwing brogue golf shoes designed for the modern gentleman who appreciates style that tells a story.
For Snyder, that story begins in Ames, Iowa, across the street from a golf course he never played.
“I didn’t golf, but I caddied for my dad every weekend, and he always wore wingtips,” Snyder recalls. “As a kid, I didn’t understand their significance, but now I see them as iconic.”
Courtesy FootJoy
This collection embodies that sentiment: it’s not just a shoe for golfers, but a tribute to the son who grew to appreciate what his father already knew.
The Marquis and Packard blend vintage and modern aesthetics. They feature hand-selected full-grain leather uppers, adorned with patent leather wingtips and sophisticated broguing that feels at home both on a clubhouse floor and a golf fairway. Snyder complements these classic leathers with sneaker-inspired laces and reflective piping, creating a connection between his father’s generation and the current one.
Beneath the surface, modern features include a Premiere EVA midsole shaped like a stacked wooden heel, soft leather lining, a padded OrthoLite tongue, and Softspike Pulsar LP cleats. The Marquis comes in gray—exclusive to Todd Snyder—and white. The Packard, named after FootJoy founder Frederick Packard, is exclusive to FootJoy. The color palette is inspired by the essence of a Long Island summer.
Courtesy FootJoy
“I spend a lot of time on Long Island during the summer, and the colors—the dunes, sea, sand, and grass—shaped the palette, including the seafoam spikes,” Snyder explains.
This sense of place is reflected in the campaign marketing materials, featuring a Southampton Beach Club membership card, a weathered postcard of the coastline, a worn FootJoy glove, and the Shinnecock Hills crest, proudly displaying its founding date of 1891. Together, these elements connect the shoes to the very ground where U.S. Open week is taking place.
This location holds a deeper heritage. In 1896, John Shippen, a 16-year-old Black caddie and golfer from Shinnecock, competed in the second U.S. Open at the club, despite objections from other players about his participation. He proved that American golf was never as limited as the barriers around it.
Courtesy FootJoy
Although his father, a Presbyterian minister, was not a golfer, one can imagine the pride he felt watching his son step into a space that didn’t welcome him, yet still hold his own.
Golf has always been a journey: passed down, inherited, worn in like leather, and reshaped by each generation that carries it forward.
This theme resonates this Father’s Day. In the FootJoy campaign, a young Black golfer is photographed in the brand’s signature whites, echoing the legacy of Shippen and reminding us that most of us, regardless of how we came to the game, were first guided there by someone older—a father, a grandfather, a mentor, a caddie master, or a teacher. Someone who walked ahead, then made room for us.
Courtesy FootJoy
Snyder’s father wore wingtips without ceremony, just as fathers often carry out the seemingly small actions that end up meaning the most. Decades later, those memories inspire a golf shoe, a distinct design language, and a tribute to the legacies that style can inherit.
The Todd Snyder x FootJoy Premiere Series Marquis and Packard arrived June 16 through the brands’ websites and select retailers, perfectly timed for Father’s Day and U.S. Open week at Shinnecock.
Courtesy FootJoy
What begins as leather, laces, and spikes can become something more: a keepsake, a memory, and a reminder that what we inherit is not only the game of golf, but also the people who first walked it with us.
