This shoe popped up on my screen as I was googling shoes (need a new pair) and have to say, yeah, these black ones look pretty darn good.
This is the Monarch road / tri shoe from an Italian company, VeloVetta. From what I can gather, this is the only shoe the currently have on the market, on their site the have this, a pair of socks and a baseball hat on sale.
I guess it’s a case of all your eggs in one…shoe.
What do you think of the look? Let me know.
So here’s the ‘thing’ with these shoes – VeloVetta say they are the first cycling shoe ever designed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and tested in the wind tunnel.
At $405 US the price point is at the higher end of things but not bad when considering the potential aerodynamic gains that could be reaped. The company say their shoes are 32 seconds fasted over a 40k time trial in compared to an athlete wearing the S-Works 7 Road Shoe.
They did a bunch of tests on these shoes in comparison to some established brands, see below:
In ‘real’ terms that even I can understand:
The shoe has an interesting fastening system too, accessed at the back of the heel, said to not only be more aerodynamic but also to allow for quicker transitions in triathlons. This structure at the heel also plays a part in the aerodynamic qualities of the shoe.
I can’t see any protective heel ‘rubber’ for use when walking, but presumably they come with one. Very interesting project this, amazed no one else has ever designed shoes with CFD, and just emailed the company to see if I can get a pair to test!
Watch this space…
Not a bad look. I’d wear them although the question would be socks or no socks