Week One: DVS Milan CTC Cadence thoughts

Let's get a few things straight. I'm bias. I'm stubborn. I judge and because of this, often I feel I am right. I know that I am not alone in this and sure, some might write this off another way for me to feel superiority over the next guy in being able to acknowledge this. This does not mean that I am afraid to engage in discussion on any number of topics or perspectives. I'll value your insight, thought and will challenge you with questions as I wade through what I may believe.

Wow, talk about dropping a bomb just to say I got some new shoes that are 'cycling' specific.

I am privileged to be able to spend a few minutes out of my day roaming the internet super highway looking to see what's being said and done in the cycling world for work. One of the sites that I frequent like many is over at Prolly is not Probably via Fourteen Teeth. He's had a DVS banner up for some time and has been rocking the DVS/Cadence collaboration for most of the summer. Ever since I caught wind of these I've been interested in getting a pair but didn't find a need since my Adidas Sambas have been holding up great after around a year of use, along with a dip in the Louisiana swamp back in March. All good things must come to an end, as 3 weeks ago the heel began to finally give way and so I ordered up a pair of these.

I had my hesitations about a pseudo-cycling shoe by DVS, given the obvious fact that they have primarily been a skate company. Don't get me wrong, I rocked DVS's back in my emo kid days but having aged to become the grown-up emo kid/hipster [yes, I don't deny it like some] of sorts, the width of my shoes have become rather important for a few reasons.

First, let's not deny aesthetics. The downfall of skate shoes can be the brick like appearance, especially with the wave of bootcut/girl pants. Yet at the same time, too narrow of a show can give the impression of... well, I don't know but I think we can all agree that some thing isn't right. Secondly, as mentioned before width. Width comes into play especially when running toe clips, thus was my draw to the Adidas'. The last thing I want to have to do is struggle to get my foot in the clip while riding. With DVS's background in skate was afraid that problem might occur.

After receiving the shoes in the mail around a week ago, when I opened the box I did have a little buyers remorse. Why? I ordered the gray instead of the black. As any of my friends my attest, black is kind of my color. Although I love the look of the gray, I immediately realized that the gray would never quite look as good as they did the day before as I continued to wear them. But I took a breath, laced them up, slipped them on and...

Foot Nirvana. A tight heal, firm yet highly walkable soul, and a toe box that felt very similar to my Samba's in their prime.

Over the past week, I've been rocking these as my everyday shoe, at work and play. riding around on my cruiser and then with Red. Red is the only bike that I have toe clips on, the All City with their double strap and needless to say, the transition was not noticeable. All in all, so far so good; I'd more than willingly put my stamp of approval on these. Every now and again I'll do a check in of sorts on these shoes and see how it goes.

As Guitar Ted has said many times, when people buy some thing they are more likely to not admit to problems with the item when reviewing it because of the expense they incurred in purchasing. I bought these and thus my bias. Take it or leave it, Prolly has been rocking the DVS Milan CTC Cadence shoe for some time and gives plenty more insight here.