For years I have been trying to get a pair of cycling shoes that did not feel like my toes have been put in a vice. I guess in the past one just accepted this was the way as that was the way shoes were made. When I started riding back in the early 80’s shoes were basically meant to be uncomfortable as the idea they would stretch as they were she form of leather. The idea was if you got shoes that were comfortable when they stretched they would then not fit correctly. Keep in mind the basic design was that of an Italian business shoe - think pointy toes. On top of that, just to set up how things for me started, most shoes had wood soles of some time and you had to nail on the cleats. I started when there were cleats that had a plate you nailed on then the cleats had some adjustment. That said with my first shoes I had to ride them with no cleats in my pedals its toeclips to get a mark as a guide then hd to nail the cleat on - FUN!
This idea that shoes were to be uncomfortable got a little better as synthetics came around but still the toe are was cramped. Maybe the good, in some ways, was that running shoes also had cramped toe boxes in general so the cramped toes in bike shoes was not an anomaly. In general for most of my bike shoe experience they were just going to be uncomfortable and I had to live with that - and did.
As far as my feet - and know this is true of others - I have quite “low volume” feet. If you have not heard this term before - “low volume” - it has to do not necessarily with width but that the area of the foot, usually in the arch/instep area, is not as usual. The realist of this is many shoes, cycling and running, the laces come together over the instep. Often leads to needing to get shoe smaller than optimal and thus cramping the toes even more. On running shoes this is just as much an issue. Add to this in the last 8 yers or so I have done some work with “toe spacers” to get my toes to splay more naturally. In doing this it began to limit the running shoes I could use and was just as bad with cycling shoes. I started in Altras which have lager toe box but over time they got wider/more volume and was not happy with them so moved to Topos. I have been running in Topos for maybe 7 years or so and even with them I have only a fe that the volume is best along with the right length. As my toes spread more the worse my cycling shoes fit. The best I was able to find were the Rapha Classic Shoes and for gravel the Explore Shoes. Not great and do feel some pressure on my big toe but the volume was good and can get by even for rides as long as 200 miles. I should add there is one company that seems to have the wider toe box - Bont - but as was not able to try them and they do seem to need to be fitted as they have moldable fit - can’t return if you mold them - but also heard they were wider. Too often companies conflate the need or a wider toe box with needing the shoe to also be wider. I have heard Lake has some shoes with more toe room and differing widths and volumes but there were so many choices, most not cheap, I just did not go that way.
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| Levathans Next to Rapha Shoes |
So now to the start of talking about the Strong Feet Athletics ( https://www.strongfeetathletics.com/store/p/leviathan ) and their new Leviathan cycling shoes. I initially heard about these shoes in a podcast Colby Pearce with the Tyler Brenner the creator of the shoe at Strong Feet Athletics I encourage you to listen to Colby’s podcast on the shoes and there is also one on Russ Roca's Path Less Pedaled video that covers the shoes at the 5:30 mark - link should take you there.
You can read the links to the shoes and with the video links you will get a good review of the specifics of the shoes. Some of those along with the wider toe box is the shoe is they are flat and not with a rise like on a running shoe with stack and on basically all cycling shoes. This flat position is a more natural position and likely may take some getting used to - more on this once I get to ride them - as most shoes put your foot in a position that is not natural but begins to feel the norm. Also, and this is something I wonder why most shoes do not do -at least in the lower price range where weight is not as important, they use both 2 bolt (SPD) and 3 bolt (SPD-SL) patterns so can be used with whatever pedals you have. One note, and I have not noticed this and the guy in Path Less Pedaled did not notice this, well did not mention it, is that if you use the SPD cleat you may need a the SHIMANO SPD-Cleat Stabilizing Adapter to not let them rock - again I have not tried them so you may not need this so can try first. I could use these in some gravel races but on others I could not as not the best for walking off road.
The one area that both Colby and Russ Roca covered is to do with volume. These are for sure not "Low Volume" but are not exceedingly "High Volume" either but in talking with Tyler that can be helped by a number of means such as a spacer under sole as I often have to do any way on shoes. The other is the shoes are not meant to be tourniquets so take come getting used to as Russ Roca of Path Less Pedaled stated. Again I need to work on this and will do so over the next month or so. I will say as my Rapha Explore Shoes just are not all that comfortable for gravel I did get a pair of Pear Izumi Expedition PRO Shoes and while the toe box is far from the Leviathans it is much better than my Raphas. My hope is, and I talked to Tyler about this as well, the Levithans will go over well enough for a gravel shoe to be added to the line.
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| Comparison of Insoles: Leviathan Vs Rapha |
- Colby Pearce - Short Alignments: Strong Feet Athletics Leviathan Shoe Review
- Russ Roca of Path Less Traveled (Starts at 5:30) - Rene Herse TPUs, Strongfeet Athletics Shoes, Ortliebs New Mount | Is it Any Good?
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