Review | Etnies Jameson Mid Crank flat shoe

Hannah checks out the Etnies Jameson Mid Crank MTB shoes, developed with Brandon Semenuk.

Suede? Pale grey suede? What kind of mountain biker are these built for? The answer is one who does tricks, probably on dirt jumps (which are a dry weather activity…) and who probably isn’t going out for a long distance moorland slog.

Bearing Brandon Semenuk’s name, it’s perhaps no surprise that these shoes aren’t quite our normal flat pedal fare. Add to that Etnies’ skateboard heritage, and you know we’re going to be looking at something a little different with the Etnies Jameson Mid Crank.

These shoes have a stiff enough but flexi enough sole to provide power and protection, but also allow you to feel the bike. They’re sticky to a point – you don’t want to be too attached to your bike while doing a can-can, I guess. I wouldn’t know. If my feet are off the pedals, it’s an accident in the making. The ‘mid’ element of the design is the inner collar, which is slightly higher cut around the ankle to help protect you walloping your foot on your crank. And the suede…well, that would prove to be something of a revelation.

The Etnies Jameson Mid Crank are available in five different colours, in a range of what I might describe as ‘earth tones’ – handy if you want to match your shoes to the colour of your dirt jumps? They’re nicely understated, normal looking shoes that don’t scream ‘I’m going riding my bike, bro!’. All the soles – there are four different colours – have a ‘Geo-Hex’ tread pattern, and there’s a foam insole for cushioning.

The shoes are advertised as offering ‘mountain bike-grade stiffness with free-ride functionality and durability, providing a shoe that is as versatile as Semenuk’. Would they prove versatile enough to meet my more mortal needs?

In Use

Sorry, but the rest of this article is for members only. If you have an account, please Login here. If not, you can get access by registering here for free.

Members get access to exclusive content like this but they also get..

• Fewer ads
• Post comments to stories
• Join in forum discussions
• Sell unwanted kit for free in our Classifieds
• Automatic shop discount on Singletrack merchandise
• Access more members only content

Premier members get more

• Magazine content in print 6x/year post free
• App access to every new issue of Singletrack
• Ad free website
• Big discounts on shop merchandise
• Access downloads like GPX files, PDFs and even iBooks
• Full mag archive access to all Singletrack back issues

Premier membership starts at just £2.50

FREE TRIAL OFFER

Sign up for any of our membership plans and we won’t take payment from your account for 7 days. Try out the ad free website and access our magazine archive for free for 7 days. Cancel your account within the 7 days and no payment will be taken. Free Trial provides access to digital features only and does not include printed copies. Excludes gift subscriptions.

Why do you ask for registration to view some articles?

We get asked this a lot. The simple reason is that content is increasingly expensive to commission, create and publish and where once the cost of this process was mostly covered by advertising revenues, now that’s no longer the case. We increasingly rely on our paying members to keep Singletrack going and we’d love you to become one of our supporters. however, that’s not we are asking right now. You can read the rest of this feature simply by registering an account on our site.

How does being a free, registered user help you?

It’s NOT so we can sell your email details, or even to send you newsletters. Our last newsletter was sent out in early 2018 – we really should send out a few. It’s not so we can show you more ads either – in fact when you register we show you fewer ads. The reason is actually because registered users come back and look at more of our content. They start interacting with us and posting comments of their own and joining in forum discussion. That level of interaction is what eventually feeds our new subscriber numbers and so for us the journey to gaining new subscribers is to start by encouraging you to simply register an account. We hope that the benefits that will bring to you will be the first step in you joining us as a Singletrack Premier supporter.

Latest member deals

Our members get the best deals on our merchandise. Join us and become a member for free today.

Our merchandise sales are a vital source of revenue for us at Singletrack and every sale helps keep people employed and creating the content that you love. Support us by browsing through all our merch in our shop here.

Review Info