These distinctive shoes belong to Trek Factory Racing’s Eugenio Alafaci, and were customised by artist Alessandro Richett using just a Sharpie pen. During the Giro d'Italia Bontrager is giving away three pairs of the shoes that will be similarly customised. 

The shoes up for grabs in this competition will be customised by Alessandro Richetti by hand, ensuring that each shoe is completely unique. Underneath the design is Bontrager’s team-issue XXX shoe, which feature a carbon fibre sole and twin Boa dials. You can read our Win a pair of customised Bontrager shoes

We’re well used to see custom shoes in the professional peloton, but we’ve never seen any this stylish before. They’re like a work of art, almost too nice to use and risk getting grubby. Artist Richetti lives in Carnago, 40km from Milan, the same town that Eugenio Alafaci comes from. At the beginning of the 2014 season Eugenio Alafaci gave a pair of white shoes to his artist friend and let him personalise them with a Sharpie pen, and the results are very impressive.

You can enter the competition here, and read more about the story of the shoes here.