Despite that, we're sure these shoes would do very well on the track. With a thick, padded heel, the shoe prevents your foot from sliding around while working the pedals. On the other end, the shoe's leather upper is also part of the sole. The rubber treaded sole protrudes through the leather, which wraps around to become the shoe's sides. It's classic driving-shoe construction that provides good pedal-feel for your toes. The sole's tire-like tread might look like what's on your car, but Michelin says the tread compound and design are not the same as its road-going products. However, the company's tire engineers did help out on the development.
This is Michelin's first attempt at casual footwear (they already have a line of work boots), but in our opinion, they got the look right. These are good looking shoes that we've gotten complimented on several times. The dark, full-grain leather is nicely contrasted with hand-sewn, light-brown stitching. A bright blue Michelin logo facing outward is about the only drawback to the look, but isn't too distracting. The shoe's interior is also leather with a nicely padded tongue and heel.
Like we said, these shoes perform as well as you'd expect a driving shoe to in the car. But we do not recommend taking them off road. No, we learned they are definitely not made for mud. We forgot that and, after a trek across my muddy yard, were digging dirt from the deep treads for the next 30 minutes. And they're still not clean. The fix? Take 'em off if you want to play in the dirt.
Michelin says its new line of casual shoes will cost between $79 and $150. As far as we can tell, they are not yet on sale, and specific pricing has not been set for our Belair model. Being the first shoes we've tested, and without any actual track time, we can't say "Go buy these shoes!", but we can say they seem rather comfortable and we're not embarrassed to be seen in them. Even at only 5 mph.
See other shoes in Michelin's lineup in our high-res gallery.
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