New 175g Giro Empire SLX Steps Out As One of the Lightest Road Shoes Ever, Updated with Actual Weight!

These look awesome. For that day when you win the lottery.

$350 and the insult of having to lace them up on top of having to pay an unrealistic price. In my opinion, you would be a real sucker to buy these.

why is this niche market thing requiring resources to develop that will have a very limited production run so expensive??

Per mile…these are cheaper than any shoe you would ever by off of a bike. I’ve managed 40,000+ miles on $300 shoes. I doubt I’ve put 400 miles on a $100 sneaker

But they’re soo ugly….

@Padrote ugh, thank you. Giro (and most others) make exceptional shoes at the entry level pp. These are not them.

I don’t believe these to be as classy as the other Empire shoes, but nevertheless I’m curious!

Will a Speedplay version be offered?
Do the Empire shoes fit narrow like most Giro shoes, or can they fit wider feet?

Unless something’s changed ever so recently, Speedplay mounts to the 3-bolt road standard. They have shims to deal with different sole radii as well. There could be something I’m missing, admittedly. The Empire is the most comfortable shoe out of the box I have found. I want to win the lottery.

The first generation was incredible. The ratcheted ProLight SLX was also a great shoe, so I can see marrying the two to be pretty awesome.

And you’re crazy if you pay retail for any cycling product. No one should ever pay $350 for these.

Giro clearly never got their shoe laces stuck in the chain as kids. Then again, I suppose that was a much bigger problem with coaster brakes.

Everyone who wants Velcro and buckles forgets that this model is aero. Looking at the usual 3 velcro straps from the side forms a total of 4 square inches of velcro thickness area counting both shoes that forms a perfect 45 degree v to capture the air! The same holds true for side buckles and knobs sticking out. this area is much dirtier to air than the difference in the round 650c wheels to 700c about 2 square inches. differences are significant on studies on the zipp 404 and HED3, They actually track drag grams and seconds lost at Olympic tri distances. laces also make the shoe fit better to make them narrower reducing area to the wind maybe another 3 sq inches. This is huge since the feet actually go faster than stationary parts on the rider at half the pedal rotation cycle. due to v squared effect on force drag the total ave drag is slightly more on the shoe than stationary parts on th bike or rider. This is much more important than any weight loss for any course that returns back to the start for zero elevation net. aero studies show 10 percent due to shoes alone(road shoes seem to be the worst to me) tri shoes can be vastly improved for aero. (Ex commercial product manager and aerospace rocket engineer/scientist for GD SAIC technitrol).