Buckle up. This might be a long one.
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I spend more time exchanging emails/messages with clients discussing shoe choice than any other single aspect of fit.
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A shoe that works properly allows you to fully engage the foot - usually with a little help from @sidasuk and/or @form_bikefit - achieve appropriate cleat placement and, crucially, will actually be comfortable.
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Quite important for a sport where you spend hour after hour pushing watts through your feet, no?
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Sizing shoes is easy, or it should be.
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But finding the right shape of shoe can be a fair task.
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The internet is populated with miracle solutions: ‘Buy THESE, they will solve all your problems’ etc.
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Blah, blah, blah. Not true/not possible.
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Example: A shoe that fits a low volume, slim foot simply won’t squeeze round a wide, high volume one. Not happily anyway.
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I know this particular struggle is real because I’ve spent the last year or more looking for something that accommodates my spreading/wide-yet-incredibly-skinny left foot.
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They say you find solutions in unlikely places and I’m now pedalling in a pair of Fizik Infinito Wide. Shout out to @extra_uk for their assistance.
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Historically, Fizik are a brand I would rarely recommend - indifferent cleat placement and a cliché Italian narrow fit - and 100 per cent one I would never, ever have considered for my own foot shape.
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They fixed the cleat issue a year or so ago and now offer a genuine 6mm wider last - rather than just making the upper bigger, like some - but crucially without increasing volume through midfoot/rearfoot, avoiding that wallowing sensation I get with most ‘wide’ options.
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Perfect? I’m not that easy to please. But I no longer feel like my left foot is in a vice on a warm day.
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Stick with me. Continued below ⬇️
4 weeks ago
