I thought the lakes I want are expensive…LoreOne 3D wins

[charliedid]

Far out man!

[KonaSS]

Those are wild looking. Going to need lots of updates of your impressions.

[KonaSS]

Any updates here Prototoast?

[prototoast]

I can give you a few updates, but ultimately the grade on these shoes is incomplete. The shoes aren't quite ready for prime time yet, but do their credit, the company has been working with me to address all of my concerns.

Even under ideal conditions, these shoes take a bit of work to set up. They have this sequential molding procedure with a series of different thickness pads that are designed, in theory, to give an optimal fit. Unfortunately, my shoes arrived with a number of issues that made this even more difficult. The wire/ dial adjusters didn't operate smoothly, nor open far enough, which made getting my foot in and out of the shoes to be a struggle. The various pads are supposed to be held in place with velcro, but the adhesive bonding the velcro to the pads was failing, so they wouldn't stay in place. And the mesh liner on my shoe tore the second time I put them on.

So we were off to a rough start, and at this point I was pretty sure. Just wanted my money back, but the company seemed committed to making things work for me. I guess they're really still going through a learning process, refining some of their materials and processes (for example, they looked into the issue with the pad adhesive failing, and said that the vendor they get the pads from used to different adhesive for my pads compared to previous shoes). Better understand all the issues I was having and address them, they even went so far as to fly one of their employees out to do a house call.

I think this level of commitment both highlights the aspirations and effort of the company, but also the fact that they're not ready to scale up yet. At this point, for as much as I've paid, they have undoubtedly lost money on the transaction (that is, if you count the costs related to my shoes as a cost of goods sold rather than r&d).

After the house call, the guy took my shoes back with him to try to make the various repairs and adjustments. They have also said that they are developing a lighter weight version of the shoe (my shoes came in at over 400 g each, heavier than my cheapest mountain bike shoes).

So when all is said and done, I am still hopeful that I will have a pair of shoes that I'm happy with (two, actually, if I get the lightweight ones). The company has provided a level of support that is almost unheard of in the bike industry. I also have a pair of conventional molded custom cycling shoes, and would have loved to have had this much commitment to addressing my problems with those. But to anybody who's considering buying these, have some patience, and even though it's custom, don't expect a shoe that will just slip right on and be ready to go. But it certainly looks like it's a group of good people who are working on these, with enough financial flexibility to work their way through all the kinks in the process.

Beyond that, one thought I had is that a lot of their marketing focuses on supposed power gains by using these shoes. I haven't put enough miles on them to know whether or not that's true, but also, that wasn't why I bought the shoes. I bought them because I have weird shaped feet and every other shoe I've tried, including custom, still isn't particularly comfortable. As of right now, they are hopeful that these shoes will be as comfortable as any for me, and that might be true given my history of other shoes, but I also wonder if in the future they might benefit from offering a "power" version of their shoes and a "comfort" version that may be a little more traditional, possibly even cheaper, but is optimized for the rider who is willing to sacrifice a few watts in the name of comfort.

[Shane4XC]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

I was just thinking about this with regard to saddles.

i thought one of the benefits of 3D printing was it was cheaper than making stuff by hand, especially on a production basis once the model was created.

why is 3D stuff so expensive? $700 saddles, $2k shoes? what?

Because sooooooo much engineering went into these designs. At least that’s what they’ll say 😂

[sumant28]

I have so many questions still. Did you try any of the shoe covers? The main appeal for me of these shoes is simplicity and minimalism. I like the idea of having the same shoe to wear regardless of the conditions. If it is hot and I want ventilation I can imagine going without a shoe cover at all. On the other hand I like the idea of having a shoe cover for wet weather rather than a winter shoe. I can always do overshoes on normal shoes but that looks more cumbersome than on a skeletal looking shoe

[prototoast]

Originally Posted by sumant28

I have so many questions still. Did you try any of the shoe covers? The main appeal for me of these shoes is simplicity and minimalism. I like the idea of having the same shoe to wear regardless of the conditions. If it is hot and I want ventilation I can imagine going without a shoe cover at all. On the other hand I like the idea of having a shoe cover for wet weather rather than a winter shoe. I can always do overshoes on normal shoes but that looks more cumbersome than on a skeletal looking shoe

I'm still waiting to get the shoes back from Lore. While I had them, I never rode them with shoe covers (I only got one size shoe cover at the time, because they were waiting on my size).

That said, overshoes on these shoes are definitely more cumbersome than overshoes on normal shoes (riding for 5 years in the Pacific Northwest, I have a lot of experience with different overshoes over normal shoes). Despite their "skeletal" appearance, they are bigger, bulkier, and heavier than normal shoes.

[sumant28]

I was interested in these shoes for a while but I decided instead to get the Mavic Comete Ultimate 2 at a fraction of the cost with a discounted price. I really wanted fully carbon shoes and to have off the rack carbon shoes fit perfectly I consider myself lucky. Even if money is no object I still think the Mavic Comete Ultimate shoes are a better design because the shoe cover particularly the winter one goes inside the shoe rather than outside. The only issue is that the winter overshoes for Mavic Comete Ultimate are either sold out or impossible to find even second hand