Over the years of owning Mountain Soles we have seen and repaired many interesting things. Often times we work with customers who are trying to get a piece of gear or footwear to do something that it was not meant or designed to do. This kind of modification or custom work usually doesn’t come cheap because we frequently have to do quite a bit talking and drawing with the customer or even build a prototype (or a few) to ensure that we translate their ideas into reality. This kind of creative thinking and working can take time but it can lead to some interesting results.

Not long after I bought the business in 1999, a friend of a friend named Michael Sylvester, called me and said that he had a bike shoe project that he wanted to see if we would tackle for one of his clients. It turns out that the client had one leg shorter than the other which is a pretty normal occurence. Since then we have worked with many of Michael’s clients, compensating for their leg length differences so that they have better body alignment while riding their bike. Below is a pair of Sidi Dominator cycling shoes (a particularly good shoe for this kind of modification) with a build up on the right foot. The picture above is a pair of PearlIzumi running shoes with approx. 20mm build up.

This entry was posted on Saturday, December 8th, 2007 at 11:43 pm and is filed under Gear, What we do. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.