Adidas Velo Sambas

100 euros at my Adidas store

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hey didn’t we ask for those like 15 years ago?!

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yeah, I feel like the age of clip-in commuting has come and gone. I recall, now twenty years gone, impassioned conversations about how using spd pedals got you across town way more efficiently.

Maybe mountain bikers will get into these instead of those horrid blocky not-quite-skate shoes they wear these days.

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US only gets black, Europe gets blue, white, and yellow too. But still pretty rad

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If they recessed the cleats enough that they won’t clickety-clack, I want a pair RIGHT NOW!
From the photo, they don’t look recessed enough tho.

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the cream is really nice looking

wth no cream in USA, and the top part of the toe box isn’t perforated - I know the standard samba isn’t but this is a good application for a vented upper shoe

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This might just tick the box for “SPD shoe I can also contradance in”

hey mambo, mambo velosamba

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Interesting that the sole doesn’t look like a super chunky platform like those goofy DZR shoes. I wonder if the cleat area is stiff enough that the pedal won’t hurt to ride up a hill in.

I guess I’ll find out in 4-8 days because I just bought a pair in a moment of questionable judgment.

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remember when chrome just gave everyone shoes for free when we sent them nasty ass old shoes? adidas, if youre reading this, do that

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Eagerly awaiting a sole stiffness report

This pic suggest to me it is recessed.

‘normal’ shoes with spd almost seem more dorky than strappy and clicky units. My opinion is probably different than gen pop.

Obviously it’s recessed like all recreational SPD-compatible shoes, but it has to be pretty deep to avoid the clickety-clack.

They might be ugly, but five tens actually protect your feet when you crash, hit rocks, etc. They’re also not clip in so I don’t think these will replace them.

Also adidas owns them and makes those blocky puffy mtb shoes.

yeah, they bought Five Ten, right? I’m curious if they start bringing into an Adidas MTB line, or keep it a distinct brand like Reebok.

Is clipless basically only a thing for XC racing now?

At this point they’ve owned five ten for over 5 years? They seem to be slowly adding adidas branding. First they merged selling it into the adidas outdoor/terrex online store, now it’s all going into adidas dot com.they also canceled all pro deal accounts so I’m pretty bummed.

Most racers of any kind are still doing clipless, but flats are kind of the going rate for casual mtbers.

5 years? Time flies when you’re sorta dimly remembering things from the cycling business press…

I guess the racer / casual distinction in pedal choice makes sense, as mtb is also the default causal bike. Not a lot of people making road bikes their first choice when getting into the sport, right?

it me. I just checked to see if I could cop some sambas cheap but nope

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Apparently it will return eventually. At least that’s what they said.

The Sleuth is basically a Samba. The gum rubber is kinda scary in the wet, though. It looks like they went with a better cleat area, though. I had to use shields on my Kestrels to get any sort of positive clip in.

I am sorta interested in the Primeblue Freerider, though.