Suplest Off Road Alpine boots

Numerous things have sucked about summer so far this year; not least, still having chilblains in June. We should have been prancing about in our disco slippers months ago but instead I’m still doing almost every ride in winter-lite shoes and wool socks. Rubbish.

Step forward these shoe-boots from premium Swiss brand Suplest. They’re aimed at the all-mountain market (all-mountaineers?) and are sort of a cross between a race shoe and a walking boot, with extra protection on the inside of the ankle to save those little sticky-out bones that are all too easy to bash on your cranks when getting over-enthusiastic with the knees.

I don’t usually like laces on shoes but as these are boots, it makes perfect sense. You can minutely adjust the fit and the Velcro strap acts as both lace catcher and stabiliser. The fit is on the narrow side, which suits me fine, though the tongue can dig in a little if I make the mistake of doing the laces up too tightly at the top. The looks are Marmite but they look a heck of a lot better covered in mud than they did brand new, and in a dinky size 40 they look really quite cute.

But back to function. The Vibram sole is good and sticky, with plenty of deep tread that grips well when you’re slogging up soggy slopes with your bike trying to pull you back down again. They’re not waterproof, but they’re also not especially vented; this means that your feet will get wet if you submerge them or are out in the rain for a while, but also that they’ll stay warm. Mmm, warm wet feet. What’s more British than that?

Overall: Perfect adventuring shoes for the summer we are not having (and the Indian summer that will hopefully follow, too).

Jenn.

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