Adidas The Gravel Cycling Shoe
£160, adidas.co.uk
Ahiker, a five-a-side footballer and a boxer walk into a room and decide to design a pair of shoes for cycling off-road. And the punchline? It’s these awkwardly named Adidas The Gravel Cycling Shoes.
The high, sock-like ankle cuff is there to keep out dust and gravel, and looks to have taken design inspiration from Adidas’s popular Box Hog boxing shoes as used by Team GB in Tokyo. The grippy thermoplastic polyurethane ‘walking pods’ on the outsole offer traction on steep, slippery trails, a bit like a pair of Adidas Predator moulded trainers on a 3G football pitch. And then there’s the reinforced heel cup, toe box and looped heel tab, which bear striking resemblance to the brand’s sturdy Terrex hiking shoes.
It all combines to make a uniquelooking off-road shoe. How well they work for gravel cycling we will only know when we review them for the Cyclist website.