Do you remember the X-Project shoes? Yeah, Pearl Izumi announced them over a year ago, and created a ton of press hubbub around their new product. They even held a media camp in California, which Jeff attended, and Jeff even reviewed a sample pair of the shoes.
However, not much has been heard from Pearl Izumi since. Whatever happened to those shoes? Are we ever going to get the lightest, most efficient, most flexible mountain bike shoe ever?
Well, turns out we are. According to Pearl Izumi, over the course of testing they discovered some of the carbon lasts would crack over time. Now, these cracks weren’t always visible to the eye, but they did show up on X-rays of the shoes. Pearl Izumi wasn’t satisfied, so they went back to the drawing board and redesigned the last from the ground up, to provide the exact flex and energy transfer qualities that they wanted without sacrificing durability.
So now, after that long, arduous development process, the X-Project mountain bike shoes are finally ready! By the time this article is published, the shoes should be available in the United States (although they are not yet listed on the Pearl Izumi website). If you’ve been waiting, now’s the time to check them out!
