I thought the shoes are very fashionable, but they do not quite mix with the socks and the artwork on the legs .

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Never give up, never say die.

People keep complaining about the price of this shoe ($450) but its in line with many of the other brands.

Sidi Ergo3 $500
Mavic Ultimate: $475
Fizik R1: $400

It's a shoe... If you have heal retention issues then..... The last doesn't fit your hobbit feet or it's too big..

I think they look swell. Not as euro peacock as sidis ( which I own and love )

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In line with other shoes that are over priced.

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r o y g b i v

Those shoes are straight homosexual country music special olympic gay.

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"It never gets easier, you just go faster..." - Greg Lemond

"Because technology alone is a poor substitute for experience." - Richard Sachs

Take the booties off so I can see the shoes.

I just can't picture anyone else besides the white guys in the Rapha videos wearing them.

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As usual with Rapha, badly designed rubbish and way overpriced. Who do they think they are, Sidi?

VTB, we don't doubt that you do, but let's keep this family friendly

can we just cut the crap about everything Rapha being "overpriced."* Whether you like it or not is one thing, but the fact is that it is priced right in line with other comparable products within the industry. These shoes are no different. I'm not saying they're great, I don't care frankly... but to categorically come out and say they are "overpriced" is absurd when that is in the ballpark of what you will pay for any top end shoe these days.

* "overpriced" being price above the norm of comparable products.

If you think all top end shoes are "overpriced", well then that's a different story, but then one has to consider all the cost along the way... maybe the raw materials then are "overpriced" and the manufacturing costs are "overpriced" and the distributor's mark-ups are "overpriced" and the retailer's mark-ups are "overpriced". At what point is it just what it costs? And I don't think there is a cycling related company out there with the capital and/or desire to take EVERYTHING in-house from raw material to distribution. And there is no one in the cycling industry that is jacking mark-ups - it's a passion-related industry - most people work in the industry because they love the sport/culture.

The problems with pricing come a lot of times at the raw materials stage. Stuff isn't cheap and everyone needs to make a little money on it or it's just not going to exist. A chamois in bibs for example, can cost up to $12 per. By the time you take all the mark-ups along the way, that's about $50 added to the retail cost of the bibs! And that's just the chamois alone!!! Shoes, to bring it back on topic, are complicated structures and I'm not surprised at their costs given the rising costs of raw materials and specialized manufacturing needed.

my $.05 (accounting for inflation)

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Too bad that the leather from the Rapha shoes are made from an endangered animal. Oh well. I guess that and the $450 add to the mystique of the shoe. Might as well also put the head of a Wild Yak on your wall too, you know, the way hunter's who kill an exotic animal do.

maybe rhino skin would have been better, or polar bear fur

Or the endangered wild Yak grazing in Nepal just waiting. Waiting for those from Rapha to come for him. He will get killed at point-blank range, slaughtered, and his carcass will be put on the feet of those with $450.

Actually, wild yaks are very much endangered. They are "listed as an endangered species and the population size is abysmally declined."
http://www.indiatashan.com/indian-demographics/indias-flora-and-fauna/endangered-species-in-india/wild-yak

Yaks are not hunted for their meat. Look it up. They are hunted for their skin and fur which are worth far more than the value of the meat. Leather used from the backs of a Yak are used in shoes cost upwards of $450 and more, as you can obviously see. While the meat sells for mere pennies in places in Tibet, Nepal, and other Central Asian countries.