Giro refers to the original Empire as “the shoe that redefined laces”. Back in the early 2000s it was all about dials and ratchets, with Velcro still clinging on with its little hooks to stay current. But the Empire appeared unexpectedly, simultaneously turning back the clock and spinning it forward into the future. It helped that it was Taylor Phinney – something of a style icon himself – who debuted the first pair of Empires at the 2012 Giro d’Italia prologue, originally as a niche aerodynamic art project for time trialling. After a series of spectacular crashes in which he trashed his regular shoes, he kept on wearing the special lace-ups for the road stages and suddenly everyone wanted them including Bradley Wiggins, who wore a pair of ultra-bling custom gold Empire SLX for his Hour Record in 2015.
Not only did the lace-up system evoke cycling’s glory days but it also had real performance advantages over dials, ratchets and straps. Laces are lighter and more aero – the two characteristics that almost every product in cycling from bikes down is chasing. Stiffness is of course the other one, and it’s true its takes a bit more time to get the tension just right with laces, and you can’t adjust them on the fly, but they can lock in your foot as tightly as any other closure system.
Construction
The Empire SLX II, in Giro’s words, brings an “even sleeker shape to the Giro icon” – it’s the first time they’ve been updated since 2019. Perhaps a little surprising is that the toebox looks decidedly pointy. The trend, followed by almost all shoe brands without exception, is to go wider and more foot-shaped at the toe.
The upper has a new flat-knitted Synchwire mesh fabric that Giro says combines the lowest weight paired with the highest levels of comfort and breathability. The mesh is almost see-through and, as with the previous Empire SLX, this is excellent for keeping feet cool at the height of summer but also lets the rain in like a sieve, as you'd expect.
There are seven lace eyelets in the traditional position along the top of the foot, while there’s an all-new ‘forged’ carbon fibre outsole plate that Giro says improves stiffness by 20Nm. The claimed weight for the size 43 is 221 grams per shoe. The size 45 that I tested weighs 265 grams – not bad, but it’s slightly heavier than the S-Works Torch, which has two Boa S3 aluminium dials.
Ride impressions
Going wider doesn’t suit all feet, even though it’s often claimed that wider allows the metatarsals to spread naturally for better power transfer, and a less cramped toebox will improve bloodflow. So, as I mentioned above, it’s surprising that Giro hasn’t jumped on board with the ‘wider is better’ crowd. Instead, it sticks with its standard-width D last, which is relatively low volume and relatively narrow, particularly compared to what brands such as Lake are now classing as standard.
Even the ‘narrow’ fit of the Lake CX 333 was too wide for me, and I don’t have unusually narrow feet, so I was actually relieved to pull on the Giro Empire SLX II and find that there was no excess bagginess needing to be cinched in to the limit, and no lumpy creasing. There was a pleasingly parallel distance between the eyelets all the way up once I’d adjusted the laces to the correct tightness. The fit was perfect. The mesh of the upper is quite flexible, following the contours of the foot closely and this helps keep them sleek looking. My one criticism of the S-Works Torch, which is still my benchmark shoe for comfort and performance, is that the upper creases slightly when the front Boa S3 is tightened. No such issue with the Giros.
Fitting Wahoo Speedplay cleats was straightforward, and I found the holes in the sole roughly lined up with those of the Torches, perhaps just a few mil further forward, but it was easy to get the right cleat position.
I first rode the Empire SLX IIs for a ride out of Barcelona, where Giro has its Adventure Sports Hub, ending at the famous Horta velodrome where Chris Boardman won Olympic gold in the individual pursuit in 1992. They were instantly comfortable, even though I hadn’t experimented with different lace tensions at this point. We rolled out of the city and wound our way up local hills including the Forat del Vent climb before descending to the velodrome for a few laps on the outdoor boards.
Before setting off it had crossed my mind that I might need to adjust the fit at some point, but I almost forgot I was wearing a pair of shoes I’d never tried before – they were that perfect. Of course the same pair of shoes isn’t going to be comfortable for every foot shape so I can’t guarantee this will be the case for every wearer, and it’s obviously always better to try on a shoe if you can. But for those with feet on the narrow side, the Empire SLX IIs – or the Imperial IIs, which share the same fit profile but have Boa dials – should be on your list.
Super stiff outsoles can sometimes be more of a hindrance than a help if the rest of the shoe isn't up to the job, but I found the enclosing fit and the shaping of the sole – slightly curved but with less drop than the photos here suggest – allowed the shoe to work as a whole without sole stiffness standing out. In my experience, if the stiffness stands out, something else isn't quite right.
Are there any downsides? It’s clear that a lightweight shoe with a mesh so fine that you can see what colour socks you’re wearing through it won’t be the best for winter riding in the UK, so I’m not going to count that as a downside. I had a similar discussion with James Thomas, aka Bikefit James, when I suggested the Lake CX 333 got easily waterlogged because it’s made from kangaroo leather. He put it succinctly when he said, “It’s like saying a convertible sports car is no good in a deluge”.
However, even in the mostly dry conditions the white ones do pick up dirt quite easily, particularly at the top of the tongue where mesh covers a sandwich of padding and TPU. When I got back from Barcelona I switched to using them for indoor riding, but I’ll be breaking them out as soon as summer properly arrives. They’re also available in black if you must.
Value and conclusion
At £329.99 at the time of writing (May 2026) they’re priced as a premium road shoe but thanks to the laces they’re cheaper than the Boa Li2-dialled Imperial II (£399.99) and the new, wipe-clean Imperial All Season (£399.99).
For connoisseurs of lace-up cycling shoes, especially those with narrower feet, these are undoubtedly the best version of the Empire so far (perhaps with the exception of Bradley Wiggins’s gold ones from 2015). Long live the lace-up.
For all the details to go Giro's website.
