We’ve reviewed and covered a wide range of shoes made by Quoc over the last few years – from classic looking, clipless-friendly leather chukka boots to carbon-soled road racer lace-ups. Now we have been given a special first look at their latest, a performance gravel and bikepacking specific shoe called the Gran Tourer.
Quoc Gran Tourer carbon-reinforced gravel bike shoes
If you’re asking yourself if we really need to create a ‘gravel bike‘ shoe category? The answer is decidedly no. These shoes aren’t in fact gravel-specific, but rather a low-key looking mountain bike shoe – SPD compatible – that Quoc has designed to meet the performance needs of gravel riders and drop bar bikepackers.
It essentially boils down to the fact that most gravel & many bikepacking rigs are dropbar bikes with road bike groupsets. And riders crossing over from the road often are looking for a balance between low-key road inspired aesthetics, a shoe that is walkable off-road & a bit around camp or town, yet has a stiff enough sole for long days pedaling. So that’s what Quoc has aimed for.
The Gran Tourer shoes are to some degree still a work in progress, and you can’t quite get them yet. Quoc has started tooling up for their production, but so far has only made them in a single size 43 (which just so happens to fit yours truly, and maybe you too?) A Kickstarter campaign to gauge consumer interest is set to go live March 15. There will even be a raffle to give away a pair of these pre-production samples that will kick off a week from today. We’ll give you details on that in next week’s Friday Roundup.
Check out how to enter to win here!
For now, we have the shoes and will be riding them until that March launch. Then, we’ll give you a First Impressions review from a few weeks of riding to help decide if they are the right shoe for you. In the meantime, here are some of the key stats on what to expect…
Tech details
The Gran Tourer is a fully vegan shoe that mates a durable perforated synthetic upper to a carbon reinforced, injection molded sole (like found in their Night road shoes). On top of that a relatively soft natural rubber lugged sole provides hike-a-bike grip, with a promising looking set of lugs at the toe. Lacing is Quoc’s patented lock-lacing that allows you to independently tighten the toe, mid-foot, and around the ankle. Wrapped around the entire shoe is a rubberized band that protects the shoe from abrasion and also seals water out. Everything is heat welded together, with Quoc saying they are waterproof up to the top of that black line.
Gran Tourers will be available in four color options. Our sample is the Black Camo that gets a unique subtle camouflage design, mixing Quoc Pham’s roots via Vietnamese Tiger camo and his current home by way of some British contour lines, plus our natural colored soles. A Green Camo version has more pronounced patterning and a black sole. Pink ones match a plain olive green upper to the natural sole with a bright band around them. Pure Black is also an option – just everything black, no patterning.
Regular retail pricing will be approximately £220 a pair when they go on sale in Autumn 2018. Kickstarter backers will be able to get them at a couple of discounted levels (~30% off) starting March 15, depending on how quickly they commit to crowdfunding, with backers expected to get shoes towards the end of this summer.
