Alpinestars Shibuya

Alpinestars Shibuya Shoes

Alpinestars has been dipping its toe in the sneaker and quasi-riding shoe-boot-ride-walk-work-do-it-all category for a few years now. I had to fly to Italy and shop at their outlet store to find some dusty old MK3 boots from a few years back. (Next time you're in Northern Italy, be sure to hunt down the Alpinestars Outlet shop.) I put them in a time capsule in my basement and plan to put them into service in the year 2015. Then there were the sturdy ankle height Stunt shoes in 2006 that folks still ask about. Scoot boots. A little toe protection, flexible. Undercover moto boots. After these went into Sunset status, it was a dark long night if you wanted a good looking, comfortable, shoe to wear both at the local whiskey bar or zipping through crazy traffic during lunch break.

Enter the Shibuya. Say it with feeling.

They come in 4 varieties and sell for between $129 and $189.

We've been pre-selling the Shibuya shoes for about two months now. They're now here and they were worth the tortuous little wait.

I've been testing mine now for about 24 hours and like them. They are not riding shoes, but they certainly will perform better than regular tennies, flip-flops or penny loafers, blah-blah-blah. We've moved them on our web site from the "Touring Boot" category to the "Casual Shoes" section. We've also interviewed three attractive women about their thoughts on them and we've concluded that chicks dig them.

Sizing is correct. Feel is soothingly comfortable. They make a subdoed leathery squeak with each walk that reminds you that they are made by the largest motorcycle footwear manufacturer in the solar system. After a long hard work day, when all you want to do is peel off the day and get the Stewart/Colbert sequence started, the Shibuyas fly off your feet and hit the wall with a surprising freedom.

The Shibuya's are styley. You'll see MotoGP addicts wearing them. F1 fans, MX punks and Supermoto announcers sport these for the next couple years.