My old Sidi Geniuses. The genius of longevity.

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My old Sidi Geniuses. The genius of longevity.

My seven year old Sidis.

This might take a while, okay?

Eurobike and Interbike are over and the new shoes from Pearl Izumi, DMT, Mavic, Bont, Vittoria, Giro and the like are headed for your bike shop.

So why are we reviewing a pair of seven year old shoes from Sidi? Because when you’re ready to drop up to $300 dollars on new shoes, it’s instructive to remember the old ones.

We’re seriously considering a brand new pair of stunning Sidi Ergo 3’s based largely on a purchase we made long ago. This is a story of quality, heritage, recycling and enduring affection.

First off, we’ve loved our Genius shoes from the moment we slipped into them. The old cliché “fits like a glove” barely does them justice — they wrap, envelope, cradle, firmly caress. They’ve been an integral part of our rides, three days a week for many a year.

Mostly, it’s the high quality and respect for craft at Sidi that have made us a brand evangelist. Most every piece on the Genius is re-buildable or replaceable — and in this day and age of dwindling resources and outrageous prices that is impressive.

We’ve replaced the heel and toe counters several times and we’ve swapped in new Sidi bands across the top. When the velcro straps finally lost their stick, we simply had new velcro sewn on at a shoe shop for next to nothing.

When one of the ratchets wore out we screwed in the replacement. Then when the fabric below the ratchet began to rip we returned to the shoe shop and they sewed in an extra piece of fabric to stabilize it. Good as new.

Our Sidis are like those stories of the old Mercedes or Volvo that’s still rolling with 500,000 miles on the odometer. We just polished them up for the first time two weeks ago and you tell us how good they look.

So when we eyeball the snazzy, stylish, ohh-so-cool cycling shoes now on the market, we smile and ask ourselves the Sidi question: will these hold up for ten years?

Before you throw your credit card on the counter for that shiny new pair, we personally recommend you ask how re-buildable those shoes are and what replacement parts are actually available. Because we know for a fact, the Sidis are crafted for the long haul.

And when we finally replace our old black Geniuses for the next Sidis, we won’t be throwing out the old pair. Why should we — they still work just fine.

By |2019-02-03T16:15:31-08:00November 13th, 2011|Product Reviews, Uncategorized|13 Comments

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13 Comments

  1. Pal November 15, 2011 at 7:13 pm - Reply

    I agree. I have an old pair I picked up on sale (now 5 years old) and recently I purchased at an end of the year sale a new pair of white (snazzy) ones. They are great shoes and unlike so many other things in this throw-away culture, these are shoes designed to be continually restored. I too love my Sidi's!

    • TwistedSpoke November 15, 2011 at 8:29 pm - Reply

      Pal, happy to hear your Sidis have done you well. I love mine and look forward to my next pair. I was on the Sidi website today and discovered there is a patron saint for shoemakers. Saint Crispin. No doubt, he approves of the Sidis too. Matt

  2. Keith D November 16, 2011 at 11:03 am - Reply

    Rode out to Nicasio the other day. Guy pulled up on a Ducati , dressed in gear appropriate to do photo-moto in the TDF, down to the Sidi boots he was wearing. I was sporting my pair of SIdi road shoes. We nodded in passing each other. Nuff said.

    • TwistedSpoke November 16, 2011 at 1:13 pm - Reply

      Keith, yes, the Sidi bond among men — powerful stuff. Matt

  3. eippo1 November 16, 2011 at 5:57 pm - Reply

    I recently replaced my primary road shoes with a new pair of Sidi Ergo 2's. They replaced a pair of Diadora's that I never liked. What's funny is that the Diadora's were after Carnacs and after Northwaves, but I've always had a pair of Sidi Genius 3's that I got in 2000 that outperformed everything except for the new Sidi's.
    They are still my commuting/ backup shoes and still fit and feel great even though there's a huge part of the heel missing from a crash in a crit 5 years ago.

    • TwistedSpoke November 16, 2011 at 8:19 pm - Reply

      Hey, thanks for the Sidi story. I love to hear those tales about something you love that you keep forever. It's cool to find a product that isn't just a thing you use and discard but one that sticks close to you on the longer journey. Matt

  4. Laurence Guttmann November 20, 2011 at 8:05 pm - Reply

    Hi Twisted folk,

    I enjoyed your Sidi story. You may like mine; http://www.theweeklycycle.com/2011/03/my-italian-

    Cheers,

    theWeeklyCycle

  5. miao November 21, 2011 at 5:30 pm - Reply

    I’d tried them on and loved everything about them except they were not wide enough for my feet. Too bad! I have wide feet and narrow heels. The upper was very supple. The ratchet straps didn’t dig into my skin. The heels were very firm and snug! Perfect score on everything, except not wide enough! Missing out on the best shoes ever 🙁

    • TwistedSpoke November 21, 2011 at 10:21 pm - Reply

      Miao, Sidi does make a wide version in a fair number of their road shoes. In fact, they make more wides than narrow. Matt

      • miao November 22, 2011 at 9:04 am

        very hard to find the mega version here. that's the problem.

      • TwistedSpoke November 23, 2011 at 10:04 am

        Well, I wear the super narrow so I've got the opposite situation, Matt

  6. Patrick Joseph May 8, 2020 at 2:55 pm - Reply

    I have owned my pair of Sidi Genius 3 shoes for well over 15 years, in a size 50 that fit me great. The cut out area on the bottom of the shoe is a problem though. I’ve been using speedplay pedals on them, but I want to change to a pair of cleats that will only work with a flat bottom shoe. After many nights of searching, no one has a 50 in stock anywhere. I will probably go with a pair of Bont shoes, since I can find them in the size that I want. My Sidi’s are really scuffed up, and I have certainly got the value out of them after all these years.

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