Interbike 2013: FiveTen Shoes

How fortunate for FiveTen that its Greg Minnaar-designed shoe has just come out in time to help him celebrate his World Championships win in South Africa. The Impact VXi Clipless is pitched as being the ‘the highest performing, most protective and lightest DH specific shoe on the morket’

Key features of this shoe are listed as ‘13% lighter’ – than what, it doesn’t state… The sole has Stealth MI6 rubber (the sole design was still being finalised, so we weren’t allowed pics of the underneath, but there’s a Stealth dotty heel and a smooth mid-foot with more dots at the toe. The shoes are 500g each, which isn’t super-light compared to regular trail shoes. And the show is claimed to ‘dry overnight’ which is another claim that we could do with a little more understanding of. Anyway, it comes in all black or this black and red version.

And now for something completely different. This is a variation on the classic Freerider Five Ten shoe, only it features a completely slick forefoot for more precise positioning (as you’re not hindered by where the dots are). And, film fans, the Mi6 rubber compound was developed for Tom Cruise and the Mission Impossible film franchise. Well I never!

And here’s the new Five Ten Impact. Designed with the help of Sam Hill and Brook Macdonald, the outsole is claimed to have 50% more shock absorption and dampening than any other shoe on the market. The new upper has been slimmed down, saving 20% of the weight (now 360g a shoe). There’s also a new quick-dry hydrophobic upper that ‘dries overnight’. This we will have to see!