One of the first things anyone will notice with Giro’s Empire VR90s are the laces, "surely they can’t work?" Well in short they do, very well actually. You do lose any ability to adjust the shoes on the fly, but the laces allow for a highly customisable fit that hugs your feet 100% securely. It takes a couple of goes to get a feel for how tight you want the laces, but once dialled in we never had to adjust, even during some long and tough rides/races.
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We've been testing these shoes for a while now and used them during a particularly muddy World Marathon series in Belgium, and while the laces held secure for 4.5 hours in epic conditions, they did end up gathering a lot of mud and slop. This made them harder to clean and more importantly, heavier by the end of the race.
The sole has a generous covering of Vibram rubber, which does a fantastic job of protecting the carbon fibre and gives you some added grip if you slip a pedal.
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They’re not great when running or walking in greasy conditions though, as the tread has a fairly uniform and flat design. Ideally we’d like to see some deeper channels in the foot bed to combat this.
Giro offers customisation on the VR90 by providing three different heights of arch adjustment in the form of small foam wedges, which slip neatly under the foot bed. They’re easy to change and should ensure the that Empire’s fit people with unusually high or low insteps.
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