Shoes
Shoes
The headline new member of the Bontrager shoe family is the Velocis. The Velocis lies mid-range and comes in at £169.99. Retention system is a combination of one Boa dial and a single support strap built into a synthetic upper with ‘Lightning Mesh’ ventilation panels.
The platform for the shoe is a reSilver series carbon/fibreglass composite sole that scores a 10 out of 14 on Bonty’s own stiffness index, meaning they should be a good fit for both racers and more casual riders. The Velocis comes in three colourways: black, white and what they call pink/black, which looks like a tropical pink/orange combo more than a traditional hot pink.
Elsewhere, the XXX Road Shoe stays at £259.99, but they’ve added a fantastic red colour to the link to complement the white and black already available. Similarly with the Classiques Bontrager have added a fantastic blue to add an even more modern twist on the old-school design. Also still in the range are the eye-cathing XXX LE shoes with their Halo tech light reflection. The inside half of the shoes may look grey, but when bright light – like car headlights, for example – hit them they light right up and become super high-vis.
For women, there’s the new Meraj. Coming in at £169.99 you get the same carbon/fibreglass composite sole as on the men’s Velocis, scoring the same 10 out of 14 on the stiffness scale. There’s also the fantastic-looking new Anara for women, a lower end shoe with top end looks coming in at £129.99 for a nylon composite sole.
One other special set of shoes on view were in the style of Eugenio Alafaci’s custom team-issue XXX shoes. The Trek Factory Racing rider had them designed by artist Alessandro Richett. Richett not only designed the shoes, but hand drew the patterns on with Sharpie pens and they look absolutely incredible. If you look closely, you can even see the pen strokes on the exterior.