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GIRO TECH FEATURES: ROAD TRIPPING THROUGH ITALY PART 1: SIDI SHOES
Zap
May 21, 2009
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As you might expect from the most celebrated cycling shoe maker in the world, the house that Signori Dino (as in SiDi) has built is a magnificent testimony to the brand’s success and high regard in the sport. Sidi’s expansive new factory in Coste di Maser is chock full of racing memorabilia and, of course, an endless array of shoes. Founded in 1960, Sidi first made its name in the production of trekking shoes, which proved popular with the legions of hikers. It wasn’t until a decade later that cycling shoes entered the Sidi domain, and for almost four decades since they’ve never looked back. And just like their local competitors (Gaerne, Alpinestars, AXO), Sidi has also made a name for themselves in the world of motorcycle footwear as well. We were fortunate to be able to sit down with Mr. Dino to find out more about the shoe company that he founded, as well as his take on the sport of cycling today.
 The Sidi factory is an imposing structure, but home to only 70 employees. The bulk of Sidi’s employees (300) are based in an ancillary factory in Romania where the initial construction and sewing of the shoe’s uppers takes place before being shipped to Italy where the sole is attached with final assembly.
THE BEGINNING
Road Bike Action: Mr. Signori, could you please give us some history to Sidi and how the brand became synonymous with performance and new technology?
Dino Signori: “We had already been in the shoe business making hiking boots, ski boots and motorcycle boots since 1960...so you can imagine it’s a little bit difficult to remember all the dates and everything.” “I started to make cycling shoes in the early 1970’s. I used to ride and race bicycles when I was a young man and after 17 years off the bike, in 1973, I decided to buy a bicycle to get in better shape. I hadn’t ridden in years and weighed about 210 pounds! So I bought some new cycling shoes and decided to go for a ride up a 12-kilometer long climb, and after a few hours on the new bike with the new cycling shoes, I realized that my knees were killing me! The position of the cleats was not perfect and as I was riding home I started to think ‘is it possible that after all these years, no one has come up with a better solution on how to make cycling shoes better?’ “So I started thinking about how to improve cycling shoes and decided to make an adjustable cleat. I took a piece of leather and made it into the shape of a cleat, then got a piece of titanium sheet and drilled holes in it, placed rivets to secure it then had a plastic cleat made to fit. The cleat could move freely, but the adjustable bolts enabled the cleat to be placed in the correct position for any rider.”
 Common among many Italian cycling companies are a variety of “rags to riches” stories that are readily acknowledged for the role that they played in shaping their modern success. Company founder and namesake Signori Dino sits on the Vespa scooter that he used in the early days to deliver shoes.
TITANIUM AND ADJUSTABILITY
“After we developed this new approach to cycling shoes, we started to produce shoes with the titanium insert and the adjustable cleat and they were very successful in the market. We continued to refine the design of the Sidi Titanium shoes over the next years. After a few years, in the late 1970’s, I made the first prototypes of a sole in nylon. In those days, cycling shoes had soles in thick leather or wood and there were some problems with these. The shoes with wooden soles were too hard, too rigid and we never made them at Sidi. “Back then, I did some research with a Doctor Costa in Bologna who worked with many motorcycle racers and cyclists and he told me that a sole that was too rigid would cause problems with tendons, especially for younger and older riders. So that is one reason that we had waited so long at Sidi to make carbon fiber soles. We waited until the technology would allow us to make a sole that wasn’t totally rigid. Our carbon fiber sole has a rigidity of 96 to 97 percent, with a little more flex in the toe area. This helps the blood circulation in the feet and improves comfort. That is why we have waited so long to make carbon soles at Sidi.”
 The most important ingredient in making a good shoe is the last. Sidi’s library of lasts contains the personal footbeds of some of the sport’s greatest riders.
THE SIDI REVOLUTION
“After we perfected the polyurethane and nylon soles in the early 1980’s for our economical shoes, we started to look at improving the fit of the upper. Until that time the shoe closures were with laces, but we had seen success on our motocross boots with Velcro closures, so we decided to try these on cycling shoes. The Sidi Revolution was the first cycling shoe with Velcro instead of laces, and it came out in the early 1980’s. In those days, we were also experimenting with a cycling shoe upper with a nylon string closure that we had patented for motorcycle boots, but decided not to use in cycling shoes because it didn’t work that well.”
“Other innovations were our prototype sole in nylon with a carbon fiber insert in the early 1980’s, but we weren’t satisfied with the function so that was shelved too... the technology just wasn’t up to the idea back then! Another project we worked on back in the early 1980’s was a quick release pedal system, many years before Look came out with their system. We had a lever that had three levels of closure and got this to work very well but had problems to manufacture the pedal in an economical fashion so we abandoned this project.”
 A collection of shoe uppers wait to be mounted to carbon soles
LORICA AND THE GENIUS
“Our next innovation for cycling shoes was in the uppers; we were not satisfied with the performance of leather as it would stretch and lose its shape over time and when it was wet. A lot of our competitors used calfskin leather for the upper, but we used kangaroo leather because it was much more durable, especially against water. So we started to experiment with Lorica, breathable synthetic leather used in auto upholstery; that had good performance and was very water-resistant. So we decided to incorporate this material into our cycling footwear and now Lorica has become the standard material for high-quality cycling footwear.
“I’ve never looked back or second guessed any of the innovations we’ve brought to cycling footwear. The first Genius shoe was made using Lorica and had a mechanical buckle like on our motocross boots. We gave the Genius to Miguel Indurain who won the Tour de France many times with it. Then we created the Techno that had a special front closure...there have been so many! We know Sidi can’t satisfy everyone with our products but we are confident that if people try our shoes, they will want to use them.”
 Signori Dino stands proudly in front of Sidi's line of cycling shoes and motorcycle boots |
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