I’ve been trying some OP Men’s Drag 3 Skate Sneakers I got from my local haute couturier for a whole $16. I’m liking them a lot. The look good and feel comfortable, not as tank-like as the Vans Shrapnels I started out with but more padded and supportive than the Nike 6.0 Zoom Mogans I also have.
A friend asked if I thought they’d last very long. I asked him why I should care.
+1 on cheap trainers 
I found these cheap skate trainers in our local sports shop at just £15…British Knights Skate Shoes…they’re like normal high top canvas sneakers but are made of some form of vinyl so are vaguely water resistant for the off-roading. The high tops give me a little ankle protection too. They’re rather thin soled but seem to be unmarked by the metal pins in the pedals. At this price I could buy a new pair every couple of months!
UL
Cheers UL, just bookmarked those 
Currently wearing Lonsdale’s for 2 reasons.
Firstly I’m flat footed (very little arch) and these seem to work well when most make my feet ache. A normal arch support for most would feel huge and uncomfortable for me.
Secondly I’m not a fashion follower and hate spending lots on clothes/shoes. Lonsdale’s are usually £20. Mine are now slick on the soles so I’m slipping about.
Now I’ve had a bit of time riding with my cheap trainers I find them to do the job quite nicely. I have noted they’re quite thin soled…I can really feel the pedals through them and they slide over the pedal pins more easily but so far I’ve found those to be good attributes. My last pail of trail walking shoes were a little stiff and the ridged soles didn’t allow for any foot repositioning.
It has made me wonder whether trainers with a heal would help in getting my foot positioned on the pedal in a more consistent fashion.
Do people prefer flat or healed soles and why?
UL
I don’t necessarily have a preference. It doesn’t really matter since I ride on the balls of my feet, rather than the arches where the heel would provide a stop against the pedal. My usual riding shoes have flat soles, but I have ridden in work boots, which have heels, without issue.
I have read that having heels can cause trouble getting away from the uni in a UPD, though I don’t recall specifically observing that myself.
It’s true. One time I had a high speed 36er UPD that knocked a shoe off. The only way I can see this happening is that the heel caught on the pedal when I fell. In this case though I wasn’t hurt, just the ditch that I landed in had a big stripe in it. :o
A big Shmolagin shaped stripe? 
LOL
Good point about the foot position. I prefer to get the ball of my foot on the pedal but sometimes my trailing foot doesn’t plant on target when free mounting and I end up in that awkward feeling position of having the ball of one foot and the insole of the other on the pedals.
My ability to reposition my foot while pedalling is improving but the flat sole trainers do assist in being a little more ‘slippy’. The only time I’m not so sure about the slippiness is powering up hills (or girlie angled slopes in my case) when I feel like I might slip off the pedal.
UL
…I’m still laughing to myself at the mental image of ‘powering up a slope’ as it pertains to my feeble efforts… 
In the video “Rough-terrain Unicycling,” George Peck specifies using shoes with heels. I think that was because in those days pinned pedals either weren’t around yet, or were not common. I have ridden in shoes with heels, and while they do work OK, and as you say, help put your feet in a consistent position, I don’t care for them when riding, particularly off-road, because the heels do tend to keep your feet from coming off the pedals during UPDs. This can mean the difference between an easy run-it-out event and a full-on crash-and-burn.
The shoes I wear now have flat, fairly stiff soles, and I like them. They “stick” to the pins well, but still allow adjustments.
Here is my new “road racing” shoes:
“Nike Elastico II Indoor Soccer Shoes”
(Actually, Nora is running this colors. Mine are yellow and orange…)
I was looking for shoes with a sole rounded on the heel, appropriate to slide-hit the Schlumpf buttons. This shoe have a good heel for that purpose.
The shoe is not wide, and the whole sole is rounded on the edges. It is easy to place the shoe on the pedal pretty close to the crankarm (reducing the total width), which seem to be an advantage when the cadence is turning high, without running any (or, a too big) risk of the sole getting caught by the crankarm.
A disadvantage here might be that a narrow and rounded shoe sole won’t lie on the pedal the same way as a wide and flat sole. As my intention have been only to use them to ride on road, riding fast, I have not experienced this as a problem.
I’m not sure if the shoe is sufficient robust for a long time outdoor unicycle use, but I will give it a try. I’ve not been disappointed so far…
Bearing in mind that I’m a complete newbie and can’t really call myself a rider yet, my shoes are the five ten “Danny MacAskill”. Bought a year & a half ago cos the price was good at the uci downhill world cup in Fort William, Scotland and rarely used on the bike as I prefer spd’s on 2 wheels, but I really like them on the uni with Nimbus pedals, the plastic ones with a stripof mmetal pins round the edge. I’d thought about swapping to metal pedals with screw-in pins but I think they might just be too grippy!
After doing most of my riding on the common Odyssey Twisted plastic pedals I got onto CrankBrothers 5050. They were fitted to a 26 inch KH I recently bought second hand.
They worked really well with my shoes and foot movement technique of cyclically transferring pressure across the face of the pedal to shift my foot position. I was able to move my feet about better than I had before. I could better feel the transition as the pins gripped and released and it was easy to turn the grip on and off.
Another aspect I liked was the slight offset in height just in front of the axle, making the front of the pedal slightly lower. This can be felt through the soles of the shoes making it really clear where my feet were positioned.
I think it also allows the pins at the front to be disengaged and the foot angle adjusted while still being well connected to the pedal by the rear pins.
The grip when they gripped was almost unbreakable and I did find that I needed to actively align my foot sometimes since there was no “give” in the connection.
My first ride on the new uni was in the rain and I came back totally soaked yet not once did I feel any chance that my foot was going to slide off the pedal due to loss of grip.
Thumbs up for these pedals for me.
My $16 skate shoes having gotten past their prime, I downgraded and got some “Starter trail running shoes” to replace them. I’m a little embarrassed to say what they cost but I paid more for a sandwich on Tuesday.
I’ve been riding with this exact shoe (in a slightly less obnoxious color) for about two years. I’ve done muni and hundreds of miles on the road in them. They’ve been an excellent choice for me. They stick well, but not SO well that I can’t move my foot when I need to. Some riders like a stiffer sole, but I find that removes me from the feel of the pedal too much.
I usually wear boots if I’m in jeans, so if I’m not in workout gear I tend to find a heavy boot to be great. Both my unis have studded pedals and the boots just seem to have the authority to make them move effortlessly.
If I’m in my exercise gear, I use an old pair of Puma running shoes. At first I tried my Brooks PureFlow3s, which I use for running now, but they were just too light and tended to stick on the frame.
I have recently taken to riding in lightweight motorcycle boots after finding out the hard way about not having ankle protection.
I posted about them here.
Although they are definitely more prone to moving on the pedals than softer soles I have been overcoming this by becoming more mindful of my feet and really focusing on the pressure and position.
After a few rides with this increased awareness I am finding that it isn’t such a problem. My ability to move my feet on the pedals at will is also increasing.
A side effect is that I am also tracking a lot straighter than I had previously and reaching higher cadence. The boots fit me like a glove leaving no movement inside so I have a very precise awareness of their position throughout the revolution.
I expect after some time this consciousness will become internalised and I won’t have to focus so much.
As I posted above I have been riding in motorcycles boots. Love the protection of the uppers but the soles are not ideal because they don’t grip the pedals well.
Today I dragged the toe of the left boot on the road in a UPD and the front of the sole peeled off. Now I am thinking of putting better soles on the uppers that I love.
So I’m asking, what is it about a sole that makes it ideal for pedal grip? I get the feeling it is something with a fine structured tread so the pedal pins engage.
The boots have a lot of structure in the sole foundation. Indeed there is a zigzag pattern on the bottom that engages with soles that would pass as a tread. I would try them without the sole except the leather around the edge would be too easily worn down.
So all I really need is a reasonably durable surface that grips pedals. It wouldn’t need to be very thick. I am thinking of just replacing the front part and leaving the heel and maybe the instep as they are.
I could salvage the soles of other shoes. I would only need to match the width. Are there any suitable shoes that the outer layer of the soles would come off reasonably easily?
I am at the brainstorm stage so even suggestions that might sound silly would be welcome.
I wear sneakers all the time, and I’m a big fan of Adidas Sambas; I latched onto them about 5-6 years ago, for a hip, retro 70s look. They work just fine for street riding, which is 95% of what I do.
Over the cold months, my main sneakers were hiking shoes… which I’ve been calling “sneaker boots.” They’re very durable (they lasted through the winter with no sign of wear at all) and they have incredible grip. My pedals also have a lot of grip to them, so if I try to ride my unicycle with the hiking shoes it’s like having TOO MUCH grip! For example, it’s difficult to re-adjust my foot positioning, because the pedals have ahold of my shoes and won’t let go. It’s somewhat dangerous in those spots where I really WANT to get free; I’ve found myself toppling with the unicycle a bit (and even falling) if I don’t mount perfectly… so now I won’t wear them for riding, and it’s the Sambas only.
(Non-unicycling, sneaker conversation: for many years now, my dream sneaker was Adidas with green stripes, but they were discontinued in the early 80s. I settled for the Adidas Sambas with black stripes, but then Adidas re-released the Sambas with a variety of stripe colors, enabling me to get the green ones! Happy day! I wore them for two years and recently went looking for a fresh pair, but now they’re gone again and I had to revert back to black stripes. I CAN get the green stripes, but only as a custom design from the Adidas website, at twice the cost. Boo!)
I wear sneakers all the time, and I’m a big fan of Adidas Sambas; I latched onto them about 5-6 years ago, for a hip, retro 70s look. They work just fine for street riding, which is 95% of what I do.
Over the cold months, my main sneakers were hiking shoes… which I’ve been calling “sneaker boots.” They’re very durable (they lasted through the winter with no sign of wear at all) and they have incredible grip. My pedals also have a lot of grip to them, so if I try to ride my unicycle with the hiking shoes it’s like having TOO MUCH grip! For example, it’s difficult to re-adjust my foot positioning, because the pedals have ahold of my shoes and won’t easily let go. It’s somewhat dangerous in those spots where I really WANT to get free; I’ve found myself toppling with the unicycle a bit (and even falling) if I don’t mount perfectly… so now I don’t wear them for riding, and it’s the Sambas only.
(Non-unicycling, sneaker conversation: for many years now, my dream sneaker was Adidas with green stripes, but they were discontinued in the early 80s. I settled for the Adidas Sambas with black stripes, but then Adidas re-released the Sambas with a variety of stripe colors, enabling me to get the green ones! Happy day! I wore them for two years and recently went looking for a fresh pair, but now they’re gone again and I had to revert back to black stripes. I COULD get the green stripes, but only from the Adidas website as a custom design, at twice the cost. Boo!)
Custom Boots
Check out my new hybrid uni boots made from the uppers of my Sidi motorcycle boots and a pair of Adidas Nets basketball shoes.
Was wearing my Adidas Sambas, as always, at our Unicycle Club gathering last night, when a fellow rider pointed to them and said I had the perfect footwear for unicycling. “Those are the sneakers which come recommended for it.”
