Long held as one of the best, grippiest flat pedal mountain bike shoes available, a new Five Ten Freerider Pro BOA brings upgraded dial-fit control with a new single Boa Li2 retention setup. You get all the same Freerider Pro fit, style & grip, just easier adjustment of how tight the shoes are – especially helpful for on-the-fly adjustment.
adidas Five Ten Freerider Pro Boa flat pedal MTB shoes
We actually got a sneak peek at an all-white pair of these new Five Ten Freerider Pro mountain bike shoes back at Crankworx Whistler last summer. But Five Ten weren’t sharing more details then, and they weren’t yet available. But now they are, so flat pedal trail and enduro riders can now upgrade their kicks with a new set of BOA-equipped Freerider Pros.
These are as straightforward of an update as you could ask for. They are everything you know and love about Five Ten Freerider Pros, just with more fine-tune Boa adjustment.
What’s new?
More than simply strapping on a Boa dial & wires, the new adidas Five Ten Freerider Pro Boa features a similar tongue but an all-new asymmetric upper design to distribute tightening pressure more evenly. Instead of 6 pairs of conventional lacing eyelets tensioning the shoe across 7 crossings of the flat laces, you effectively get just 3 eyelet pairs for 4 crossings of the much narrower woven Boa rope lacing. So here, the upper wraps almost to the centerline of your foot to minimize pressure points.
Five Ten says a side benefit is better breathability through the tongue, with unrestricted airflow through the thin Boa laces.
But that also means the shoes wouldn’t open up quite as easily, so Five Ten gives the new Freerider Pro Boa a mix of lacing guides. Soft nylon webbing guides across the forefoot evenly distribute pressure, work well in dirt & mud, and are indestructible. While the upper plastic guide lets users unclip the Boa wire to open the shoe up more. That likely won’t be necessary for putting the shoes on & off, but will help mountain bikers more fully open the tongue to clean and dry out the shoes after riding in foul weather.
“I have been anticipating this shoe for years and now that it is finally here, I am so excited to get my hands on it. I am especially excited about the BOA dial and knowing that this shoe can be easily slipped on and off.”
– Samantha (Sam) Soriano, Five Ten Pro rider
Tech details
Compared to the standard Freerider, these Freerider Pro Boa (like the regular Freerider Pro) also feature increased stiffness to improve power transfer and a Poron XRD shock-absorbing foam toe box for increased protection.
- synthetic upper with textured toe & heel reinforcement
- plastic BOA Li2 dial with webbing lower guides, and plastic clip upper guide
- regular fit with 8mm of EVA midsole drop (25mm heel to 17mm forefoot height)
- increased Pro stiffness & Poron XRD toe box protection
- sticky Five Ten Stealth S1 rubber
- classic Dotty tread pattern
- made of minimum 20% recycled material
- claimed 361g per shoe (US 9)
Five Ten Freerider Pro BOA – Pricing, options & availability
The new Five Ten Freerider Pro BOA retails for $170 / 170€ – in US half sizes 6-13, plus 13 & 14, directly from the adidas online shop. That’s just twenty bucks more than the conventional lace-up version, which I find surprising.
The new Freerider Pro BOA comes in two color options either all-black with classic red Five Ten logos, or white with a natural gum rubber sole, and either dark red or black graphics. The white shoe though, is only available through select online shops like Backcountry, Jenson, REI, and a few others until mid-March.
