You’ll certainly get noticed in these

DMT probably aren’t top of your list when shopping for your next pair of shoes, but they should be. The Flash is their top of the range model, and are lighter and stiffer than anything else the Italian company has produced before.

The most important factor in a top end race shoe is how stiff they are. We all know that. That’s why a carbon sole is the standard for top-end race shoes. But until now we hadn’t tested a shoe that’s as stiff as these, not even close. They feel very odd at first and it takes a while to get used to them, even on the bike. You certainly notice the difference when sprinting across to a break in a race. The soles are also very slim so the overall profile of the shoe is low, good for getting closer to the pedal axle and all that.

What makes these shoes unique though is DMT’s one piece upper. Instead of several pieces of material being stitched together to form the upper, a single piece of material wraps around the foot and is stitched along the centre – DMT call this SeamLess+SockFitConcept, or SL-SF for short. The benefit of this approach is a slipper like fit, they’re incredibly comfortable. One noticeable downside is the lack of the usual mesh areas around the toe box, but DMT have added a couple of rows of holes. In extensive testing in the Alps this summer we had no problems with sweaty fit, at least no more than we usually do…

That one-piece upper means they fit great, but the comfort is also down to the strap and ratchet system. To ensure the shoe can’t slip around on your foot a single piece of plastic wraps around the heel, and provides the platform for the ratchet. It works really well, and you don’t then need to do the straps and ratchet up very tight, which is a temptation with ratchets normally. This approach means a super snug fit, there’s no slipping around inside, and even with the ratchet done up tight (like at the start a race) there’s no pressure points anywhere.

In our extended test of them, which included a week around the Alps and plenty of track and road racing, they’ve been supremely comfortable. We were a little sceptical when we first tried them – with the tongue pulled up in the normal position, the sides would dig into out foot. So to get round this we now orientate the tongue slightly off-centre every time we slip into them: not ideal but it works.

They’re available in a range of colours, including white…