2018 WorldTour Tech: Team Sunweb's new high-end Giant race shoes

2018 WorldTour Tech: Team Sunweb's new high-end Giant race shoes

We take a closer look at Giant's new prototype shoes

Colin Levitch / Immediate Media

Published: January 12, 2018 at 10:00 am

Just after the new year, Giant announced that Team Sunweb would be kitted out head to toe in Giant branded gear, including shoes.

The brand teased us with a photo of the new prototype kicks, but when pressed for details Giant said it wasn’t allowed to divulge anything just yet.

However, a particularly friendly mechanic who was transferring cleats onto Chad Haga’s new shoes handed us a pair for a closer look.

We don’t actually know what these shoes are called just yet, but we do know they use two BOA IP1 dials and a red wire. The upper appears to be fully perforated and the material feels similar to the microfibre used on many other high-end kicks, such as the Specialized S-Works 6 and Shimano RP9.

The carbon plate appears to be an evolution of Giant's Exobeam sole with only a narrow rib of carbon connecting the toe and heel - Colin Levitch / Immediate Media

The carbon sole appears to be an evolution of the brand's Exobeam sole, which features on the Surge V2 road shoes and Charge MES MTB shoes. This sees a substantial carbon plate under the heel and the cleat, but not much through the middle of the shoe in order to provide a touch of lateral flex — as Giant puts it: "maintains efficiency while reducing the negative effects of conventional stiff shoes."

While there doesn’t look to be much arch support built into the sole, the lower BOA guide does appear to sit on a panel that moves independently from the rest of the upper. This looks as though it would provide a decent amount of support — the Surge V2 and Charge MES MTB shoes also see a similar design, which Giant calls Exowrap.

The lower BOA is attached to a separate panel that looks like it's designed to provide arch support - Colin Levitch / Immediate Media

The heel cup isn't quite as sculpted as some other pro-level race shoes, however the heel cup felt stiff, possibly reinforced with plastic underneath the other cover, and inside of the heel cup it is lined with silver cat’s tongue thread.

The inside of the heel cup is lined with one-way silver cat's tongue thread - Colin Levitch / Immediate Media