New for 2012, the Northwave Extreme Tech road shoe replaces Bontrager as the footwear sponsor of Team RadioShack.
The tech: It has an entirely new “Ultralight Carbon” sole with a new airflow system to ventilate your feet. It’s designed for all types of pedals but comes with a Speedplay-specific adapter that’ll keep the stack height super low when using those pedals. The upper is entirely seamless and has no overlapping materials, which should make it pretty comfy and eliminate hot spots. It has both ventilation windows and perforations to help it breathe.
The closure system is new, too. The basic “Extreme” shoe gets three standard Velcro straps and is shown after the break. The Extreme Tech gets their new Speed Lace Winch (SLI – the acronym apparently got lost in translation), a cable system that allows “precise forefoot adjustment” using technology borrowed from durable sailing materials. Above that, it has their micro-adjust Step By Step buckle.
Pricing is $325 US and is available in the black/white shown here, a Team RadioShack black/white/red and an obnoxious Orange/Green, shown past the break…
Plenty of vents all around the cleat area, plus extra holes from the various pedal mount options, should provide plenty of air.
Ouch.
Here’s the team edition colors (Northwave says they’ll actually be using the Extreme, below) that’ll be on the feet of podium regulars Frank and Andy Schleck, Fabian Cancellara, Andreas Klöden, Chris Horner, Ben King and U.S. Champion Matthew Busche.
The standard Extreme shares some of the features but uses a simpler closure. It’ll also be used by the continental Leopard-Trek team, too.
