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Radical $1900 LoreOne custom carbon road shoes ramp up 3D-printed production, LTD still available

Lore LoreOne custom 3D-printed carbon road bike shoes, pair
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There’s no denying that paying $1900 for a pair of custom 3D-printed LORE LoreOne carbon road shoes is wildly extravagant, but… hear me out. What if their claims of unparalleled fit, power output boost thanks to perfectly efficient power transfer, and even decrease lactate build-up are true? Then, a competitive cyclist would have to at least consider them, right? Well, Lore are ramping up robotic printing now, with some slots still available for their early production Founder’s Edition, and we’ve got some more details…

LoreOne custom 3D-printed carbon road bike shoes

Lore first released a tease of their skeletal 3D-printed carbon road shoes last winter, before sharing more detail in the LoreOne shoes’ summer launch. They are almost certainly the most expensive cycling shoes you’ve heard of, from a company that you probably haven’t ever heard of. In essence, Lore is a technology company who are into manufacturing performance and claim to deliver a new benchmark in road shoe fit AND stiffness thanks to a 3D-printed clamshell design that is literally custom-shaped exactly to match your two individual feet.

The heart of the performance gains comes down to those two targets – fit & stiffness.

Tech details – Perfect fit & unmatched stiffness

Lore LoreOne custom 3D-printed carbon road bike shoes, top

Fit is solved by Lore Cycling’s parent company Drake Lab’s own Morphic Scan+Print technology. Using an iPhone (X or newer), the Morphic App lets buyers (or rather a cooperative friend) scan their feet in three dimensions at home to such an accurate level that Lore can model a shoe structure that perfectly fits your foot, a process that takes 20-30mins.

When building the shoes over your virtual feet, Lore factors in your sock, the supportive shoe liner, and the shoes’ unique ‘sole-stimulating’ lattice footbed insole to deliver perfectly even pressure distribution over both the top & bottom of your foot, with no hot spots.

LORE LoreOne custom 3D-printed carbon road cycling shoe, Carbon Air Frame

Getting in and out of a shoe that’s exactly fit to your foot isn’t easy, so the LoreOne shoes split their CarbonAirFrame (CAF) exoskeleton in two. Slide your foot into the lower body, fit the upper piece over top, and clamp the two together.

It isn’t as light as a synthetic fabric upper, but the power transfer efficiency is said to blow anything else away.

LORE LoreOne custom 3D-printed carbon road cycling shoe, robots

Stiffness is achieved through the use of long continuous carbon fiber reinforcement in the 3D printing manufacturing process. In contrast to the standard chopped-up strands of carbon fibers that reinforce most injection-molded ‘carbon-reinforced construction like you see in 2nd-tier cycling shoes, Lore uses a technology that appears to feed continuous carbon fibers off a spool into the binder material as it comes out of the automated 3D-printing robot.

Lore LoreOne custom 3D-printed carbon road bike shoes, angled bottom

This means that the exoskeleton of the shoe is reinforced with unbroken, continuous strands of carbon fiber that are woven around the replicated shape of your foot. The result is said to deliver the “ultimate blend of high-performance composite stiffness AND light weight – while still allowing for total customization“.

The end product isn’t trying to be the lightest road bike shoes in the world, instead prioritizing fit and performance. A single LoreOne shoe of a standard size 43 weighs between 270-300g depending on foot shape. That puts them on par with some of the heavier carbon-soled road shoes on the market, but probably at least 50% heavier than the lightest shoes out there.

So how will they make you faster?

LORE LoreOne custom 3D-printed carbon road cycling shoe, riding

Let’s let Lore engineers try to explain a bit more again…

The patent-pending CAF design features structurally interlocked dorsal and plantar shells that efficiently capture lateral and rotational forces produced by the foot through normal biomechanical movement. The structural relationship between these two parts provides the most direct energy transfer possible and is a first for any type of footwear, and is only enabled by true customization. Traditional shoes with soft uppers fail to effectively capture dorsal inputs; energy is bled off before it can be translated to the pedal. Superior power transfer has been obvious to testers and early pro users. We are planning an independent third-party laboratory study to validate performance claims.

LoreOne custom road shoes – Pricing & availability

LORE LoreOne custom 3D-printed carbon road cycling shoe, road detail
c. LORE

A pair of LoreOne custom 3D-printed carbon road shoes will cost you a cool $1900 if you buy in for the limited Founder’s Edition before the end of this year – available with either 3-bolt Look/Shimano of 4-bolt Speedplay compatibility. A max of 277 pairs are being made in this limited edition run, going into production starting next week in Silicon Valley, CA on a first-ordered, first-delivered time schedule.

Not really a huge surprise that 277 people haven’t already put down that much cash for a new pair of shoes, but it does mean that you can likely still get in on the ultimate custom shoe process if you happen to have two grand to burn (or maybe 0.033 Bitcoin?)

Lore LoreOne custom 3D-printed carbon road bike shoes, angled

At least for that price you also get three sets of integral shoe covers for aero speed or weather protection, plus a shoe case, a weird baseball-style pennant to hang on the wall, and apparently a gift pack with off-the-bike apparel too.

If it helps you make that purchasing decision, Lore offers a full 30-day money-back satisfaction guarantee once your custom shoes arrive, and a 1-year warranty against manufacturing defects.

Plus, we promise that everybody rolling up to your group road rides next spring won’t be wearing the same LoreOne shoes as you.

Lore.cc

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13 Comments
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ap
ap
2 years ago

Ugh-ly. I try to be nice with my comments, but I just can’t with these. They look like Tevas with white socks. Sidi has nothing to worry about.

For All The Cows
For All The Cows
2 years ago

So much Croc that they jumped the Croc.

None Given
None Given
2 years ago

Wow, I am late to the game comparing them to Croc’s. OMG, I get that we are nutty and we wear too tight clothing, shave our legs and other peccadilloes…this is simply too far. I would rather wear Croc’s under my wedding dress…wait, that seriously IS part of the Halloween costume this year….

Sevo
Sevo
2 years ago

Don Lamson at Lamson shoes has 40 years experience making custom shoes. No one knows more and he only charges $1200. I’ve had a pair and they deliver. Have another pair on order because my dog liked them too. 😉

Think I’ll stick with a known player with experience. And no fancy hard to use system needed. He uses boa and Velcro.

dontcoast
dontcoast
2 years ago

lol you need a cover to undo the aero disadvantage

Endrju
Endrju
2 years ago

Łapcie z łyka przy tym to lakierki

Larry Falk
Larry Falk
2 years ago

People can criticize Lore, but I think the general idea of high-end custom robot made shoes is a good one and it is the future, too. The price will come down, the aesthetics will look better, and then it will become the norm. (One thing I do criticize is the marketing – Why don’t they show how the shoe opens & closes and why don’t they show photo details about the insole? I’m not spending $2,000 if I can’t see how it all works!)

Some Dude
Some Dude
2 years ago

Lace up Giros zero complaints. Also don’t have to have a full on conversation about my shoes every time I do a group ride….

Dylan Sutton
Dylan Sutton
2 years ago

If I were going to get some insanely custom road shoes, I’d be much more inclined to get something like Adam Hansen was making. https://hanseeno.com/products/u100g-shoes

Oli
Oli
2 years ago

$1900 for shoes with bespoke fit from an iPhone app? LOL. They need to be properly scanned, not that crap.

Bill B
Bill B
2 years ago

In addition to showing how it works, how about the test that shows them “blowing away” their competition. I can feel the difference in my S-works shoes and my feet are less tired after a long ride, but all this is “feel”. Shoe the test or it’s just marketing drivel.

edgardo reyes
edgardo reyes
2 years ago

Hard pass for me. They look like Crocs and just look like egg beaters for the air.

Tom
Tom
2 years ago

I don’t care if they add 20 watts to whatever…too ugly to contemplate. Reminds me of the hardware you see some orthopedic patients wearing after surgery.

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