Teva, best known for its active outdoor sandals, casual footwear and flat-pedal mountain-bike shoes, has jumped into the SPD market with an all-mountain clipless shoe called the Pivot. The US$150 pair features a few thoughtful designs.
To ensure a secure interface with the full pedal body and the cleat, Teva worked with crankbrothers and Shimano on clearances. While other shoes occasionally require shimming at the cleat or trimming of the tread, the Pivot is dialed right out of the box.
Teva cut slits out of the tread to reduce weight and increase grip
The two-bolt, stainless steel, SPD anchor has two options: the typical threads for securing the cleat from the bottom, plus the option to run the bolts inside the sole to compatible Crankbrothers or SPD cleats with T25 bolts. The shoes ship with a long T25 wrench that protrudes above the shoe, allowing you to tighten the cleats from above without even removing the laces. One cool benefit to this design: you can loosely mount your cleat, clip in, find your perfect position, then tighten down the cleats without removing the shoe from the pedal.
Two cleat-mounting options: from the bottom up (left) and through the shoe (right)
The three-piece sole features a rubber sole that is “really, really sticky,” said Teva’s Crystal Richardson. “But since rubber means weight, we have cutouts that both take out some weight and add more traction.”
A shorter shank similarly reduces weight plus makes the shoe more walkable.
“We wanted it to look more like a regular shoe,” Richardson said. “Full lacing with a Velcro strap distributes weight on the upstroke, and protects the laces.”
For more information check out Teva's website and read our past reviews of Teva mountain shoes:
The Pivot is Teva's first clipless shoe
