The New Five Ten x Adidas Shoes Explained - Eurobike 2018
Sleuth DLX
A few weeks ago at Crankworx Les Gets. there were some pairs of shoes carrying Five Ten and Adidas logos, packed into a display box near to some tight-lipped employees. Well, the shoes have been let out of the box and now we know what we were looking at, thanks to Ulf Michels, the Senior Marketing Manager. For those who were worried that Adidas, who bought Five Ten a few years ago, were going to re-brand the climbing and bike icon, and take everything that you loved away from you, well that's not happening. Five Ten is still 5:10 and the Sleuth DLX shoe is simply a collaboration, a fusion of the classic Adidas Samba mixed with Stealth stickiness.
Intended use is a step down from the Freerider shoe, so it should be good for casual use as well as riding in lighter conditions - but it does have a reinforced toe and heel cup just in case you bash a rock on the trail. It uses Stealth Phantom / Ph rubber which is a non-marking mixture and is more durable than the compounds found on the performance riding shoes like Five Ten's Impact Pro and VXI.
The Sleuth DLX are not intended to be full-on riding shoes, but there is some subtle built-in heel and toe protection.
There will be five colorways to choose from.
Five Tennies
Next up, the Five Tennies. I'll admit that I didn't know where the name 5:10 originated, but it turns out that 5:10 was the toughest grade of rock climbing route from Yosemite Decimal System, nowadays the grade reaches up to 5:15. The Tennies part came from the fact that their first shoe was essentially a tennis shoe with sticky rubber attached: ten + tennis = Tennies, get it? Anyway, they have relaunched the Five Tennies for those who want something different or have an 80's themed party coming up.
One of the first ever pairs of Five Tennies, literally a tennis shoe with some Stealth rubber stuck on - but they were still capable of completing 5:10 graded extreme climbs in Yosemite.
Updated Kestrel Pro Boa
The Kestel Pro Boa has been updated too. The Boa system has been moved higher up on the shoe to avoid contact with terrain and there is an extra Velcro strap towards the toes to optimize the fit. The heel has a deeper cup and an added cat-tongue type material that grips in one, and slides in the other direction (like ski-touring skins) helping to lock the heel down.
Troy Lee Designs Collab
Five Ten also had another collab on the table. Working with Troy Lee Designs, they have Kestrel Pro and Impact Pro shoes in a TLD colorway to match their riding kits. There were only these two versions on display, but there will be more colorways, products and apparel in the pipeline for those who need to full head-to-toe look.
The Impact Pro uses one of the softest S1 Stealth rubbers and the 'multi-dotty' sole pattern.
MENTIONS: @troyleedesigns
Author Info:
Must Read This Week
Sign Up for the Pinkbike Newsletter - All the Biggest, Most Interesting Stories in your Inbox
PB Newsletter Signup
On clipless it is meant to bound strongly your feet to the sole in order that it doesn't unstick from the sole when you pull the pedal during upstroke.
I'm a long time user of flats (mainly RF Atlas + 5:10 impact) but I know quite well the feeling of clipless pedals and shoes from my XC days, and I never felt the need for something equivalent when using flats.
Although i´m not riding flats anymore, i get the need for a clipless shoe equivalent.
Most flat pedal shoes are just so damn loose on your feet and laces are flopping around all over the place. A nice velcro to tighten and tidy things up would certainly be appreciated by a few people i guess.
Is it necessary? No.
It would be a nice feature for sure though.
But simply using laces, you can tighten them quite well over the cuneiform/navicular/cuboid bones (upper foot, where the laces are tied) so your feet won't move at all inside the shoes.
Do you ever remind of hiking/trekking/trail shoes with such features as a velcro strap even so those activities needs your foot to be extremley well maintained within the shoes ???
Boa application on trail shoes are quite anecdotic and only to replace full lacing (i.e. tie full lacing in place of a knot), not as a single strap like on XC shoes, so the suppleness and morphology adaptivity of laces to the feet remains.
As I wrote before, straps on clipless shoes are only to bound your feet to the shoe during pedal uplift/upstroke to increase power transfer and control between your body and the bike, because the shoe is mechanically linked to the bike and not by the mean of sole friction against the pedal.
There will be no benefit to use such a strap on a flat pedal, except cut blood circulation.
Point still stands.
It feels nice.
I like my shoes tight for riding, no matter what. Walking is an entirely different thing as it involves much more dynamic movement. For riding my heel needs to stay firmly in place and a velcro strap does accomplish that perfectly.
It´s like many things in life, not obejctively better or a performance gain in any way, but still worth having.
The Perfect Shoe.
I just can't figure a way my heel move in my shoes... Maybe you should try to downsize your flat shoes.
And that this strap has not the same purpose as a mid-foot strap as on most XC shoes ?
Moreover flat pedal shoes have a soft construction, with plenty of built-in cushion, EVA sole,etc, so a lot of compressible materials, so adding a strap will definitely change nothing except to compress your foot and reduce damping capacity of your sole.
If you want a more tight, more rigide shoe, what you are looking for is a clipless pedal shoe with a cache for the cleat, like the 5:10 maltese falcons.
So here I find we are all getting pedantic so I will reach the Godwinn's point of this flat pedals discussion and summon Sam Hill that doesn't need any strap on his shoes to be the fastest EWS rider !
Adding the strap does have a securing feel and stiffens the sides of the shoe allowing less flex. The strap, again, is also great at keeping the tied laces covered and clear of the mud I ride in for 7 months of the year.
I like a strap, I am going to ride a show with a strap. You don't have to. If they make a shoe with a strap, you don't have to buy it and wear it. Chill.
Specialized, Shimano, Lake, Scott and others are doing sturdy good grip soles with twin boa cleat-shoes that easily can be tightened evenly and can be fine adjusted to perfection will climb a mountain. (Unfortunately non of them are wide enough all the way up front on the inside of the toebox)
So please 5.10 rationalize your fancy lineup a bit and catch up on the high end.
What about dropping the more narrow Kestrel with its bad reputation for single boa not working very well on more then a specific foot shape!? Make a dual boa version of the Hellcat Pro in 2diffetent widths!!!
www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjk0MTagrvcAhVhRN8KHVRUBpwQjRx6BAgBEAU&url=https%3A%2F%2Fposhmark.com%2Flisting%2FUsed-Vans-Rowley-XL-III-in-size-95-5a6826a13a112eed8099bafd&psig=AOvVaw1i4B_O-ZSG0NohvLQmBoov&ust=1532634496670094
I swear the Troy Lee design department is permanently high and/or colourblind to a man.
I'm colorblind; there's no way colorblindness accounts for this. If anything those shoes are probably even more ugly to those of us that can see saturation better than hue.
www.adidas.co.uk/terrex-trail-cross-protect-shoes/CQ1746.html
Bring back the Raven: All black, has a cover for your laces and ankle protection. Don't knock a good thing.
Flats need to have the same insole as an SPD shoe to provide heel protection for those big drops/landings. Creates a bigger pedaling platform.
www.instagram.com/p/Bd4EtirFsij/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1vp2u3mlje3ux
(I know that PB mobile doesn't like "periods", but let's me clear here)
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻