Leatt SuperTack: flat-pedal shoes with a new, stickier sole

Leatt has launched two flat-pedal mountain bike shoes on a new rubber sole it calls SuperTack. The Flat 3.0 SuperTack is a low-cut lace-up at £130 and the ProFlat 5.0 SuperTack BOA is a mid-top with a dial at £170. The South African brand made its name with a neck brace and now sells protection from head to toe. By its own count the sole took six years, seven versions of the rubber and five of the tread.

These are mountain bike shoes, but anyone who rides flat pedals off-road has a stake in the sole, and the name to beat there is Five Ten. Its Stealth rubber has been the yardstick for pedal grip for years.

When James Stockhausen of Temple Cycles picked the Five Ten Trailcross Mid Pro for our gear of the year list in 2020, he wrote of "the stealth rubber we all know and love" and rated the shoe for bikepacking as well as trail riding. Leatt's testers measure against the same thing, with Martin Prest from Leatt's HQ in South Africa describing them as "like FiveTens on steroids".

The quotes in the release are Leatt's own pick from a survey of its own testers. It put prototypes on more than 100 riders, as well as team riders including Britain's Josh 'Ratboy' Bryceland and Sam 'Dave' Hockenhull, and surveyed them eight months in. "Been running SuperTacks for nearly a year," says Bryceland. "These things are insanely grippy." Nick McGuire, another UK tester, gets the line of the release: "They stick like shit to a blanket."

We haven't worn a pair. The release doesn't say how the rubber wears, and wear is the usual price of a soft sole, so it's the first thing we'd ask.

Josh Bryceland has been on SuperTack soles for nearly a year. Photo: Leatt

A softer rubber and a new tread

Leatt calls the rubber a soft compound "designed to maximise grip" and gives no hardness figure, so there is nothing to line up against anyone else's numbers. The tread, which carries the SuperTack name too, is easier to describe: raised triangular lugs sit between deep channels that run on the diagonal, which Leatt says follows the angle a foot takes on the pedal.

Both shoes are built the same way from there up. Cordura re/cor, a 1260-denier fabric made entirely from recycled material, is used throughout the upper, and Leatt says it resists scuffs and water and dries quickly. A patch of directional fabric at the heel (Leatt calls it Cat Tongue) is there to let your foot slide in and then stop the heel lifting. The EVA insole has silver thread in it to keep the smell down. The last is "roomy but not too boxy" in Leatt's words, and the brand says it works for wider feet.

The Flat 3.0 SuperTack is the low-cut shoe, pitched at trail riding, pump tracks and dirt jumps. A knitted liner wraps the forefoot and ankle like a sock, the laces have some stretch in them for feet that swell on a long, hot ride, and the loose ends tuck into a pocket between the liner and the outer. It weighs about 320g a shoe in an EU 43.

The ProFlat 5.0 SuperTack BOA is Leatt's top flat-pedal shoe, a mid-top that covers and supports the ankle and closes with a BOA Li2 dial. At about 335g, the extra height and the dial cost 15g a shoe.

The ProFlat 5.0: ankle cover and a BOA dial for £40 more. Photo: Leatt

Pricing and UK availability

The Flat 3.0 SuperTack costs £130 (€149 / $149) and the ProFlat 5.0 SuperTack BOA £170 (€200 / $200), both in Black or Vapor Grey. For comparison, £130 is what the Trailcross Mid Pro cost when it made our list in 2020.

Men's sizes run from UK 5.5 to 12.5 (EU 38.5–48.5) and women's from UK 4.5 to 8 (EU 37.5–42). Leatt's own shop lists the women's shoes as separate models. Leatt says both shoes are available now, though its note to the press adds that some countries will wait up to two weeks. ZyroFisher distributes Leatt in the UK and Ireland, so one of its stockists is the place to ask.

Full details are on Leatt's SuperTack page. The launch film, below, has Yorkshire trials rider Chris Akrigg and a great deal of green slime.