Shimano MW702 Winter Shoes

Opening Remarks

I was groomed to work at bike shop at the ripe age of 13 by an oddly enthusiastic middle aged man I'd never met, with parental consent of course. It was June of my grade 7 year and it happened to be bike week at my school, so I spent the day volunteering alongside an owner of a local shop fixing bikes. By the end of the day it was clear that I knew what I was doing in some measure and I was offered a job. Nerd! But seriously, the rest is history: I've worked in that same shop through five years of high school and four years of university - advising, wrenching, and generally drooling. The cycling industry has had a remarkable impact on my development into a young adult and has facilitated experiences that I hold very dear to me.

With this in mind I'm supremely grateful to have the opportunity to contribute to NSMB, but as this is my first review, I will ask for your forgiveness and patience in advance. A few years ago I caved and bought my first pair of winter shoes and it made a world of difference, saving my toes from hours painful numbing and thawing. With shoes like these and other proper gear, I find myself riding more frequently during the months of dismal weather, allowing me to roll into the spring riding season with most of my fitness intact.

I've spent two years on the previous iteration MW701s and they were damn near perfect, keeping my tootsies pleasantly toasty from November throughout March during everything from long commutes to hike-a-bike adventure rides. Retailing at 400 CAD, the fleece-lined, MW702s showed up in October just as Anders Celsius' scale started to read out lower numbers. After two months of testing, I have some thoughts about this winter shoe powerhouse.

Does the glass slipper fit?

I'm no Cinderella - I drive a Rally Car™ not a pumpkin, am usually clad in workwear, and you probably wouldn't want to take me to the ball. With that said, if Cinderella was to be "blessed" with abnormally bulbous feet, the MW702s would fit just right. Shimano offers most of their shoes in optional wider sizing. The MW702 is ONLY offered in a wide variation. The shoes have liberal width and depth, with a roomy toe box. I could happily double sock without cutting off circulation. When the mercury plunges, riders will want to wear thick socks or even waterproof ones without suffering from a tight fit. Since the shoes fit about half a size larger than other Shimano shoes, I would advise against going up a size like you might normally for a winter shoe. I have very flat, low volume feet, especially through the mid foot and had to use a thick pair of custom orthotics to take up some volume inside the shoe and prevent my feet from squirming about. Make an effort to try them before purchase, especially if you find yourself having to tighten the daylights out of your current shoes to make them fit snug.

The single BOA L6 dial on the MW702s was a familiar affair that enabled my feet to be easily cinched into the shoe. Some would argue for a higher end, two-way adjustable BOA dial to enable adjustments in both directions, but that would be redundant because the cover prevents access to the BOA dial. The velcro goes right to the edge of the cover, making the cover hard to pull off at times with gloves on or cold hands. Extending the cover a bit beyond the perimeter of the velcro would've been nice but that's a small gripe. The upper opens up wide to get feet in or out, a huge improvement over the MW701, which felt suction-cupped to my feet once saturated at the end of a wet ride.

The MW702s have a longer BOA cable enabling the shoe to open wider - just pull the dial up to release the tension. Lack of zippers throughout was nice as I find the extra step and tendency to fail super annoying. The neoprene cuff makes the shoes feel secure but the flap was a bit stiff to begin with and wouldn't conform well, although it did break in and start to stretch over time.

Lastly, the insoles left me disappointed: Shimano says they are fleece-lined but the fleece insole topper is only a few mms thick and they were built like stock insoles. The liner underneath the insole is well built, warm, and waterproof, so swap an alternate insole in as you please. A merino insole like the Esker insoles Andrew Major reviewed with heat and moisture management properties, would be a solid candidate.

Grip-yeah or grip-no?

Despite my gen z roots and propensity to enable the sublimation of "woke new things," grip-no is not a new genre of grunge, subcultural, or deviant EDM music. The deep front and back rubber lugs dig into soft ground and mud well, but offered minimal traction on wet roots and rocks. On loam and sand these shoes performed admirably. They are compatible with toe spikes but those won't solve the grip problem on hard surfaces. I really liked the ME7-esque sole of the previous generation MW7 and found it more comfortable to walk in. The noticeable lack of grip in the new model was evident from the first time I wore them to work and had to carry my bike down a steep set of stairs to the basement of the shop. With that said the Ultread rubber is touted to be super durable and shows minimal signs of wear.

The cleat mounting area is rockered which makes it easy to clip in and out and there is no need for shims with my Look X-Tracks or Shimano SPD cleats. Standard 2-bolt fixing for cleats and two fixing points on the embedded cleat nuts provided a wide range of adjustability and the markings made it dead easy to position cleats. The MW702's sole is rated for a stiffness of 7 out of 11. For reference, their stiffest MTB shoes - the XC9 - are an 11 and a downhill SPD like the AM9s are a 5. Similar to most of the trail shoes I've ridden in the past (Giro Terraduro, Specialized 2FO Cliplite, Shimano ME7) they struck a nice balance of being forgiving on the trail without feeling overly compliant on the gravel bike. These have been the only shoe in the rotation now that we're in the throes of winter and get worn almost daily.

Extending up to the toe it was plenty reinforced, but I wouldn't kick rocks with it like you can with a pair of steel toes. That isn't one of my hobbies although safety shoe pitch and putt is a fun golf alternative if you are too many beers in and happen to lose your clubs.

Waterproofness and warmth

Off the top in this category, the MW702s were better than the previous iteration. However, as with any waterproof shoe, they need to be coupled with waterproof pants or water will infiltrat the top of the shoe. The neoprene cuff is several inches long and offers a comfortable amount of overlap with the bottoms of a pant to completely block out water. The waterproof Gore-Tex fleece liner keeps feet dry and was totally unbothered by light rain. The BOA cover flap helps a lot: no seepage through the top, no worries about the BOA dials getting gritty, or bashed against something. In heavy rain they took multiple hours to soak through and even then my feet were still warm. Sometimes I bring waterproof socks when I'm commuting on the rare occasion that they get saturated on the 20+ km morning ride in to school and I don't want to put my feet into slightly damp shoes for the ride home in the evening. However, this is a move of precaution by an overzealous Gore-Tex fanboy rather than a necessity. Note that the cleat nuts on the bottom of the shoe cannot be accessed, like with other Shimano shoes, since the waterproof membrane runs completely throughout the shoe. My pair was fine but a customer did come in having stripped the cleat nut and it made for a hard fix.

On the temperature front, they are not the warmest but the roomy toe box means you can double up on socks without cutting off circulation. In colder climates you may need something warmer. With that said, on the west coast the temperatures seldom drop far below zero, and so the emphasis is on an appropriate shoe being waterproof rather than densely insulated. For those readers in the Sea to Sky, I am happy to report that after a couple months of riding these, paired with the trusty Tommy Hilfiger value pack socks, my feet were not cold even once. That outer grey stuff on the back of the heel is reflective and adds abrasion resistance which protects from chain stay rub. The synthetic upper was easy to wipe clean and appears durable to date.

Now, this might be an overstep given my lack of counselling degree but allow me to offer up some free and all too necessary "preservation of relationship, friendship, and friends" advice. Please, please, get a boot dryer. In fact, no, not please. A boot dryer is mandatory to get the most out of a pair of shoes like these, or any winter shoe for that matter. Without a boot dryer the MW702s took 48 hours to dry, even after removing the insoles and storing them in a warm spot. Plus, they stink! On the other hand, fire up the boot dryer for a quick 45-minute blast and store them in a warm spot overnight, they'll be dry in the morning. A final word of caution on the boot dryer: although well intended it basically blasts warm air that wafts the scent of your sweaty feet widely around the room. Do with this information what you will but I wasn't careful at first, and my dear mother... well, she was livid to say the least. Sorry mom.

Final thoughts

The Shimano MW702s are amply warm and offer space for those whose extremities get cold to layer more. They are the most waterproof shoe I've tested, and yet, remain reasonably light. Additionally, they are easy to take on and off, especially important as some winter shoes are troublesome to remove once wet. They were not perfect: the sole is not very grippy on hard surfaces and the wide last may not work for those with narrow or low volume feet. No doubt 400 CAD is a hefty brick of bills to drop on a pair of shoes but these tick a lot of boxes and will ensure warm, dry feet throughout rain and snow for many seasons.

Shimano MW702 400 CAD / 300 USD
Shimano MW5 250 CAD / 200 USD