Dear cycling shoe makers: please spare a thought for us wide boys and girls

My spangly new size 47 torture devices suddenly transported me straight back to a spring evening ride of 1981, when a young me traded his teenage kicks for a red village phone box while in near-tearful, excruciating pain.

It’s strange, as I struggle to remember things from a couple of hours ago nowadays, but every teeth-grinding moment of that foot-crippling ride suddenly came flooding back in vivid technicolour.

As I shook my jaded brainbox back to the present moment, I twisted my new shoe Boa dials and turned tail for home. On looking down at their faux black leather and perforated uppers, in a John Candy-like flashback, these long and painfully narrow fresh clogs from hell suddenly looked uncannily like a reincarnation of the painful Duegi shoes I’d been wearing all those years ago.

Duegi vintage cycling shoes (credit: eBay)

This was far from the first time over the years that I’ve had to completely ditch new cycling shoes for being ridiculously tight and narrow, at least for a big and fairly wide- footed guy like me that is. Turning the Boa dials of time back to 1981 again, and Duegi shoes had just become available locally, and were supposed to be 'the dogs' in fancy Italian cycling shoe terms. Even back then, Italian shoes (especially Sidi) were known for being narrow, and so I always assumed that all Italians must also have narrow feet back then – it somehow made sense.

The old nail-on cleat Rivat shoes and other French footwear I’d strutted in before that were reasonable enough on the fit. Though, hey, it was Duegi or nowt now. Those old French foot fillets were no longer cool, to the extent that I bought Duegis two sizes too big (it's all they had). My Woolworths bargain record bucket cash all went on these handsome - yet monstrous - wooden-soled beasts, which had some of the first bolt-on cleats at the time.

I’d already been pushing my paces in pain with these shoes, which had zero flex in them. Trying to break through the pain barrier, I assumed it was down to the solid soles and teenage growing pains – which it likely wasn’t (they were really narrow).

In a bizarre and EP hazy dub-mix of Adam & The Ants, battered in a scoop of The Jam and rounded up by the Police, this particular King of The Wild Frontier eventually swallowed the Bitterest Pill – and gave in to the King of Pain... apologies for the musical sidetrack there, but that was about where my pain distraction mechanism was at right then. This was the moment that forced me step into that dreaded red box, to drop the coin in the slot and call home for help. The shame of that moment was almost as painful as my feet.

Fast forward through a lifetime of cycling and more shoe purchases than Imelda Marcos, and more pain than a sadist’s fantasy dream, here I was again – cursing cycling shoemakers for making the damn things so tight and narrow. I guess it’s mostly in a quest for perceived performance gains, though surely comfort is speed – which equals performance enhancing, or at least it is for me. And for many others too, I imagine.

2025 Bont Vaypor SL - sole heel.jpg (credit: road.cc)

Through many years of cycling and countless shoe brands, I’ve mostly chosen to ride lower end options with non-carbon soles. For a long time, I figured it was the extra bit of flex in the soles that made them more comfortable (and to an extent it was for me), though I guess the higher end models are also likely slightly narrower. At least they feel and react that way, maybe because of that rigidity.

Now, before I start to come across all anti-carbon fibre, some of the most comfortable shoes I’ve had in recent years have indeed been carbon-soled – including a pair of custom Bonts (which are known for being wider fitting, even off the shelf), and some top draw kicks from Gaerne in the wide fit option. Sadly, those models have been discontinued.

For some time now I’ve based been in a part of the world where big shoes of any ilk are impossible to find, meaning it’s potluck, mail order only. I’ve gone through a fair few not-so-footloose years, often painfully crammed into narrow shoes as that’s all I’ve had available. I’ve learned a lot about the biomechanical system of late – the hard way, and that includes a whole lot of chats with cycling specialist physios, bike fitters and manufacturers of sports shoe inserts. It seems I’m not alone here, far from it. 

As I slowly transition through my latest batch of big shoes, I’ve got down to a suitably wide selection, all while continually gluing together the cheap old pair I bought online on a whim and a prayer of wideness, as I 'break in' their successors. Through all of this, I can’t help but think that brands are missing out on that slightly wider option and its potential sales returns (yes, some do now also offer 'wider' options), although it would be an expensive implementation for them to increase their fit selection on all models of shoe. Surely it would be worth it, though?

For now, all we need is for some aero technician to do some wind tunnel and power transition tests and add wide shoes to wide tyres on their secret speed not-so- marginal gains list, and the carbon-soled footprints of the cycling world would suddenly be a while lot bigger. Free the feet!

Oh, and don’t start me on tight fitting kit. At least not until I've had chance to breath in...