The best flat-pedal shoes combine off-bike convenience and comfort with on-bike power transfer. We’ve thrashed round town, sessioned the singletrack and generally strolled about to find out which flat-pedal shoes work best on and off the bike. These are our favourites.
- Best overall: Endura Hummvee Flat Pedal Shoe – Buy Now for £45 from Endura | Find out more
- Best women’s: Ride Concepts Women’s Livewire – Buy Now for £45.99 from Tredz | Find out more
- Best flat-ish: Giro Gauge — Buy Now from £70.99 from Tweeks Cycles | Find out more
- Best on a budget: Pearl Izumi X-Alp Flow — Buy Now for £28.70 from Pearl Izumi | Find out more
High-performing flatties for commuting, leisure and urban cycling start from around £55, and you might be lucky enough to find some at a discount.
Decide how much non-cycling time you’ll be spending in your shoes – stiffer flatties are great for power transfer but might not have enough give for comfortable day-to-day life. Sticky rubber soles and clever tread design can offer excellent grip on and off the bike.
Combine these shoes with with flat pedals that have steel grip pins for ultimate performance.
The best cycling shoes for flat pedals
Best overall: Endura Hummvee Flat Pedal Shoe – Buy Now for £45 from Endura
The unisex Endura Hummvee Flat Pedal Shoes are an excellent option both on and off the bike, providing comfort and loads of versatility.
The key feature here is a sole that provides enough stiffness for riding without compromising comfort. The ‘StickyFoot Grip’ rubber on the outsole provides impressive grip on flat pedals, and the soles aren’t hugely thick, so you still feel a responsiveness through the pedals without too much flex. Up top, an elasticated lace stash up top prevents any mishaps with the chain.
Reviewer Rebecca Bland wore the Hummvees mostly on urban flat-pedal bikes, and they performed well throughout – although they’re not designed as an all-weather option, so don’t expect them to keep water out.
Overall, these shoes really hit the mark. They provide exceptional grip on the bike, and they’re comfortable for walking in.
Read our Endura Hummvee review
Best women’s: Ride Concepts Women’s Livewire — Buy Now for £45.99 from Tredz
It’s an old model but there are a few women-specific flatties on the market that feature more female-friendly styling and design than the Ride Concepts Livewire. These are excellent all-day shoes that are comfortable, well-made, sturdy and even offer enhanced performance with a stiffer sole for pedalling. They’re not super grippy, and sizing comes up a little small, but for a flattie you can live with day-to-day, they’re a great option.
Read our review of the Ride Concepts Women’s Livewire
Find a Ride Concepts dealer
Best flat-ish: Giro Gauge — Buy Now for £70.99 from Tweeks Cycles
There is a middle way between flat and cleated shoes. Some options, such as these Gauges from Giro, are supplied with cleat-mount covers that you bolt into place should you want to stay resolutely unclipped. These are stiff, comfortable and supply excellent off-bike grip with only weather protection being a let-down. And if for any reason you decide at a later date that clipped-in is the way to go, well, you don’t need new shoes – just remove the covers and fit some cleats.
Best on a budget: Pearl Izumi X-Alp Flow — Buy Now for £28.70 from Pearl Izumi
For people who want flat shoes that they can wear all day, even if they’re standing on their feet, but which offer more than just trainer-level performance on the bike, Pearl Izumi’s X-Alp Flows are the perfect answer. There aren’t super-plush levels of padding compared to some rivals, and the bit of give in the sole means pedalling rigidity isn’t as rock hard as others, but as an all-round daily shoe with added grippy rubber tread for bike-friendly ability, they’re hard to beat. The X-Alp Flows are no longer in Pearl Izumi’s current range, but they’re available in the brand’s outlet sale at very low prices.
Read our review of the Pearl Izumi X-Alp Flow
Find a Pearl Izumi dealer
Five Ten Impact Pro — Buy Now for £123.26 from Alpine Trek
Adidas-owned Five Ten is the king of the castle when it comes to flatties, with a wide range of SPD-free shoes to suit any requirement. It looks like the Impact Pro is now discontinued, but you can still find it in stock with various retailers. This model shows off all of Five Ten’s knowledge and expertise with class-leading flat-pedal grip, comfy fit and a sole that manages to balance traction, stiffness and comfort. The big variable-sized, dot-shaped tread engages with pedal pins super well. In fact, the only thing we can really find to criticise is the cheap-feeling laces – and that’s an easy problem to remedy.
Read our review of the Five Ten Impact Pro
Find a Five Ten dealer
Giro Latch — Buy Now for £73.99 from Bike Inn
The Giro Latch mountain bike shoe is a well-balanced flat shoe offering a good level of comfort and grip in all conditions. The idyllic marriage of technology and style results in a capable shoe that also looks good off the bike. With little to find fault with, the Latch shoes are a decent contender in the market.
Tester Jessica writes: “The Latch provides a good level of support from the sole, with a tough build that still offers enough flexibility to deform with your foot’s movement. This is especially noticeable when walking. Unlike the Crankbrothers Stamp shoes, which I find very stiff and a little unforgiving, the Latch is far more supple. Moreover, that suppleness hasn’t given way to a collapse in support or diminished build integrity. Some shoes feel pliable at the start before progressively giving way, causing you to apply increased tension through the laces to keep the shoe feeling secure. That’s not been the case here, however.
“Even after testing and subsequently moving on to other shoe reviews, I’ve found myself reaching for the Giro Latch shoes for my leisurely non-work-related rides. These shoes are comfortable to wear on and off the bike, providing fantastic pedal adhesion in all conditions. Despite showing some slight signs of wear on the sole, they’ve retained their build integrity quite well.”
Bontrager Flatline — Buy Now for £79 from Tredz
When he tested the Bontrager’s Flatline flatties, Jon at off.road.cc thought they were fab in a number of ways, not least fit, comfort, stiffness and feel. However, they did have one notable downside: “The Vibram Megagrip soles just aren’t as grippy as the benchmark Five Tens despite costing roughly the same,” Jon said. So, great shoes if you’re not focused on absolute traction and they’re well made, with the upside of the harder rubber being that they’re also longer lasting than stickier rivals too.
Read our review of the Bontrager Flatline
Find a Bontrager dealer
Crankbrothers Stamp Trail Lace – Buy Now for £77.99 from Crankbrothers
The Crankbrothers Stamp Trail Lace Flat Shoes are designed for mountain biking, but they work equally well for other types of flat-pedal riding. You get loads of comfort here, although reviewer Rebecca felt that the durable MC2 rubber sole would provide more grip if it were a little softer.
These shoes aren’t designed to be waterproof, but it’ll take a fair amount of splashing through puddles before anything gets through the upper. And if you’re worried about the laces getting caught in the drivetrain, there’s no need to be; a little lace pocket keeps them stashed out of the way.
Rebecca found them comfortable off the bike too. Although she wouldn’t wear them for walking the dog, they’re perfectly fine for catching the train or walking into town.
Read our review of the Crankbrothers Stamp Trail Lace
Find a Crankbrothers dealer
FLR Rexston Active Touring/Trail Shoe – Buy Now for £56.99 from Uprise Bikes
FLR’s Rexston Active Touring/Trail Shoes have inconspicuous looks and an AT200 sole that incorporates a reinforced nylon plate and a supportive EVA midsole. It transfers power better than you might expect for this price.
The rubber tread provides good grip, traction and stability when you’re walking, although the stiffness of the sole means you’re always aware that you’re wearing cycling shoes.
The soles are compatible with all recessed 2-bolt cleat systems, or you can leave the plate screwed in and ride with flat pedals.
The synthetic upper features mesh windows and air holes for ventilation. Road spray and light drizzle take some time to penetrate, but you will get soggy feet if it rains hard.
Although primarily designed for touring and trail riding, these are a winner for commuting. You’ll struggle to beat the efficiency and comfort at this price.
Read our review of the FLR Rexston Active
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Adidas Velosamba COLD.RDY – Buy Now for £130 from Adidas
The Adidas Velosamba COLD.RDY Cycling Shoes aren’t flat-pedal shoes, they’re compatible with 2-bolt cleats, but we’re including them here because they look a lot like everyday trainers. Although they’re great when you’re on the bike, we found them a little too stiff for heavy use off the bike.
Adidas’s classic black-and-white stripes look subtle enough during the day, but they really shine when they’re picked out by headlights, as do the apparently black uppers.
The Velosambas come with insulation to protect your feet on colder rides and the regular laces tuck into a loop to prevent them from getting caught in your chain.
The soles work very well on the bike, offering a surprising level of stiffness. They feel less like a trainer that has been adapted to cycling and more like a cycling shoe.
However, that does mean there’s very little flex in the sole when you’re off the bike and wanting to walk. These are absolutely fine for a quick dash to the shop or for a desk job you commute to, but reviewer George Hill said he wouldn’t want to walk around a park or go trawl round shops for hours in these.
Read our review of the Adidas Velosamba COLD.RDY
Find an Adidas dealer
Everything you need to know about flat shoes for cycling
There are a few reasons why you might decide you’d rather use flat shoes instead of cleated cycling shoes. The most obvious is that you either don’t like the idea of clipping in and out, or you find the whole cleated shoe and clipless pedal business a bit of a faff. If you’re hopping on and off your bike all day, especially in an urban environment, that’s a perfectly valid point of view.
Add to that the often significant comfort of flat shoes – it’s not always the case, but there are certainly some flat shoes that offer fantastic plushness compared to more sports-orientated shoes – and the convenience of being able to ride and go about daily life without too much of a compromise, and you’ll find that flat shoes and flat pedals might just have something going for them.
You’ll sometimes hear people say that clipless pedals are more efficient. For example, they’ll say that you can put in power on the upstroke with clipless pedals when sprinting. But efficiency is a measure of work performed compared with the energy you’ve put in. If you pull up on the pedal, there’s a physiological cost to that. It’s not free power. So we might say we’re better connected to a bike with clipless pedals – your foot won’t slip off – but we can’t say that clipless pedals are more efficient.
There is a directness about cleated shoes that makes the pedalling motion feel particularly secure. However, choose wisely and you’ll find that the right flat shoe and flat pedal needn’t be a huge disadvantage when it comes to power delivery or even surety in connection. It’s also worth remembering: switching to flats is about making your bike work better for you, not just about making you work better on your bike.
So here we’ll examine some of the most important factors you need to consider when choosing your flat shoe, and then we’ll look at some of the best examples on the market.
Daily life
Let’s start with the requirements of daily life. Although many flat shoes are designed for specific purposes such as downhill mountain biking, the big benefit they have for the rest of us who aren’t planning on taking on North Shore challenges is that you can walk about in them off the bike without the slip-sliding and clippety-clop of rigid-sole, cleated cycling shoes.
As we’ll see when we look in more depth at comfort, power delivery and grip in a moment, that doesn’t mean all flat sole shoes are fab for spending the day on your feet. These are still cycling shoes, after all. However, some flatties absolutely could become your daily shoes. As a trade-off, that might mean that they’re not quite as effective in the saddle, but that’s where your own personal preferences and requirements come into play, and they’ll still be better than a pair of trainers.
Comfort
If you’re coming from performance-focused carbon road shoes, the amount of cushioning and general all-round plushness found in some flat shoes might just leave you speechless. There’s no way these could be ‘cycling shoes’, you’ll think, as you study the box looking for an Airwalk logo or similar.
From the cushioned sides, tongue and in-sole, some flat shoes take cycling away from the realms of self-flagellation and towards a luxurious experience. And as flat shoes often feature reinforced toe boxes and heel guards, this isn’t just blind comfort – there’s a helpful dose of cycling-specific protection there too. We should also point out that some more performance-led flat shoes, which seem a little underwhelming in terms of relative comfort when standing and walking, can be fantastically comfortable on the pedals.
Power delivery
As we mentioned earlier, off-bike comfort can come at a small cost: namely efficiency of power transfer. The flat shoe sole is often made up of three separate layers: the inner sole immediately underneath your feet; the mid-sole; and the outer sole. If all of these three elements are too forgiving, your pedalling performance will be compromised. If all three of these elements are supremely stiff, then on-your-feet comfort might take a hit.
Ideally, the obvious answer is to start with a relatively stiff outer sole. The good news is, with stiffness optimised, flat shoes can feel almost as effective at power delivery as cleated shoes. Yes, stiff soles can make walking and prolonged standing a bit of a chore, so decide what you need. But if it’s all-out power in the saddle that you’re after, there are flat shoes that can supply that more effectively than you might imagine.
Grip
Of course, power is nothing without a decent contact patch. Part of the attraction of flat shoes is that you don’t need to slip and slide when you’re on your feet and some flats have specific tread at toe and heel to help walking traction. But they don’t all feature the sort of grip you’d expect from a pair of chunky trainers – the soles of flat cycling shoes are often designed more specifically to be used with pinned or studded flat pedals. To augment this, manufacturers even use dedicated sections of particularly grippy rubber in the outer sole.
So, as has become something of a theme here, weigh up how much grip you’ll want off the bike and how much you’d like on the bike. Again, though, the good news is that with the right sole tread design and the right pedals, your contact patch might be more secure than you’d expect. OK, you won’t be able to pull up on the pedals, but there should be no reason for pedal slippage.
Caution!
One word of warning though. Be aware of your flat shoes’ limits when it comes to other daily activities – in particular, driving. Assuming you drive a motor vehicle at least some of the time, understand that flat cycling shoes which offer great grip on pinned bicycle pedals are not always quite so reassuring on the relatively smooth brake, throttle and clutch pedals. So don’t drive in flat cycling shoes unless you’re totally happy they provide the right levels of grip.
Final ingredient – pedals
As we’ve mentioned already, to get the most out of a pair of flat shoes, you’re going to want to team them with an equally awesome pair of pinned flat pedals. Thankfully, there’s a huge range out there, with products that will do the trick starting at pocket-money prices. To find out more, read our flat pedal guide.
10 thoughts on “Best flat-pedal shoes 2026 — sturdy, practical kicks for commuting, leisure and urban cycling for all weathers”
Just a bit of feedback: any shoe review that mentions “fit” but doesn’t address “width” doesn’t really help those with wider feet.
The Giro Latch is an exceptional shoe – light, supportive, robust and grippy. I’ve worn two pairs into the ground and I’d buy them again. Avoid the similar Giro Deed, though; the outsole is just as good as the Latch but the insole is flimsier and provides much less support. Weirdly, the laces also come undone too readily.
Ride Concepts’ Tallac is a good option if you want a supportive shoe that will stand some hiking off the bike. The hex pattern on the sole works well with pinned pedals and seems to wear a little better than Giro’s rubber, though that comes with a much higher price tag.
It’s not the exact same shoe as in this list, but after years of FiveTen, I am currently wearing the Crank Brothers Flat MTB shoes, which I’ve owned for about a month and a half. I don’t normally have an issue with smelly shoes, but these stink. Embarrassingly so. I wear wool socks. I’ve tried special a special spray, I’ve tried drying them out. I think I’ll have to try washing them. I suspect they just don’t breathe at all.
“Buy Now for £45 from Endura”
That is £45 per shoe, because the price on Endura is now £90 for a pair!
@Ramz It’s £45 for the navy blue version, £90 for all the other colours.
@Rendel Harris Are you agreeing that the review was misleading and inaccurate?
@Ramz Not in the slightest, because the supposed wrong price isn’t part of the review, so no misleading or inaccuracy there, and the shoes are available, albeit only in one colour, for £45 as stated.
@Rendel Harris that’s interesting because the article could simply say “from £45” to indicate that the shoe might not be available in your size or colour at that price. The review itself is very specific about the pricing, so it is not difficult to do.
Really not. Sheesh, I am all for arguing about minutiae but really there are better hills to die on than this.
I highly recommend the 5 10 freeride range. 3 pairs at the moment, a pair in tan, fabric panels in suede, for the dry summer, better ventilation, a pair in black leather for when the going gets wet, and the plastic winter version, for when the going gets cold and very muddy. All excellent grip on my Shimano saints, dmr v12s and wellgo “v12s”.
Owned their spitfires for many years, my first cycling specific shoes.