My old Look MTB shoes are like a second skin for my feet. I’ve had them since the early 1990’s and have loved them to death. They’ve always been super comfy on my weird feet and are pretty well scuffed and beat up after many years of riding, but the bummer is they’ve been falling apart for a while now. The thought of replacing them isn’t much fun but yeah… the time has come.

I’ve been wearing a pair of Shimano M182’s off and on for a couple of months now, more like breaking them in. The carbon fibre reinforced soles of the Shimano shoes are super stiff, which is great for getting the power down. It’s taking a while though for the top of the shoe to stretch/reshape etc to my feet. I’m still fiddling with the buckle and straps to find settings that don’t cause numbness.The old Look shoes feel like worn out slippers compared to the M182’s.

At first I wasn’t sure about the toe spikes on the M182’s but are into them now, very handy, nice! Also you can really feel the air flow through the breathable upper, which during Winter almost makes the shoe too cold with standard socks. The deeper, open, and softer tread works much better on the M182’s work better both on an off the bike compared to the Look’s hard plastic sole which can be lethal walking around on smooth surfaces and clog up quickly with dirt, rocks and mud. Fresh cleats certainly make a difference though — guess I should’ve replaced the cleats on the Look shoes a long time ago!

Still love the old Look’s, but am slowly making friends with the new shoes…

Of course any blog post about shoes is just an excuse to post the weird but classic Shoes video, close to 44 million views, NUTS.

I’m going to backslap ya, shitbag!