Long-Term Review: QUOC Gran Tourer XC Shoes
Is QUOC one of the coolest cycling shoe brands? Even if it is how do their shoes perform? I have been riding the QUOC GT XC shoes since 2023 and weigh in with my findings below.
Box fresh - It doesnt get any better
I learnt about QUOC back in 2017 and followed its quiet rise in the market with interest. Like others at the time I was curious how a brand was able to straddle the fine line between performance and aesthetics that QUOC seemed to be achieving as they rose in popularity. The brand was founded in 2009 with its first product to market being a classic style, leather shoe more akin to the early days of the Tour de France than any sort of modern cycling. QUOC gradually progressed and expanded their line their shoes with gradual improvements to their MONO road shoes while they added in more lines that focused on touring, off road or commuting giving options to all types of cyclists.
The white outer sole is my favorite part of the GT XC design
It wasn’t until the third iteration the GT XC released in 2023 that I was lucky enough to be able to get my hands on a pair, I had become friends with some of the QUOC team when I was living in London and they offered to support me with a set of the new shoes. After years of flitting around between different brands including Bontrager, Sworks and Shimano I was keen to commit to a UK brand and have a bit of consistency in what I would use, but how would they perform? Throughout my time in the cycling industry, I had been sceptical of the fashion-forward brands in cycling. In the industry these sorts of brands can often be referred to as Cafe Kit; great for an easy spin but not up for hard training or racing. Before trying QUOC I had started to realise this idea might not necessarily be true after using quite a bit of Rapha, Maap and other kit brands which had a foot in the fashion world. I had no issues training and racing in this kit for all manner of types of cycling, so why not give QUOC a chance?
The GT XC shoe sits adjacent to the GT II in the product lineup and is more performance in its focus with a stiffer carbon sole, a second dial and an improved outersole. My first impressions of the shoe were of supreme quality, the construction is seamless and free of ugly or abrasive stitching. I opted for the “dusty pink” colourway with a stark white outer sole with the upper being a “dusty” off-white colour wrapped in a salmon pink wrap. All of the colours tie together really nicely and are in wonderful contrast to some of the more gaudy colourways chosen by other brands or even to brands that prefer an all-white approach. I am not opposed to all white (in fact it’s the colour way I chose with my MONO II shoes) but I can see why QUOC don’t currently offer it with their GT shoes, at races and on social media it helps the shoe to stand out from the crowd in a market awash with either horrendous colour ways or monotone colour shoes.
Quocs eye-catching designs are part of the reason I noticed a shift in the popularity of the brand. From 2019 to 2020, you saw QUOC booths starting to pop up at races and the shoes started becoming more common on the feet of racers in the gravel peloton of the UK and EU. My sightings track with QUOC’s release of the original Gran Tourer shoe in 2018, allowing them to ride the wave of the gravel trend by adding a fashion-forward shoe to a market busy with more old-school MTB designs including neon colours and questionable decals. QUOC updated this original design with a Gran Tourer II shoe in 2022 which added boa dials, increased durability and a more performance-inclined fit and feel to the shoe.
2023 Dirty Reiver: I regret the black socks
My first serious outing with my Gran Tourer XC shoe was the 2023 edition of the 200km Dirty Reiver. The Reivers April start date means its great time of the year to try new kit for a summer of racing and it was here that I realised that the Gran Tourer’s do strike an excellent balance between comfort, performance and style.
I attribute this in part to the pleasing “locked in” feeling you could achieve with the dual dial retaining system, it provides a feeling of comfort but also allows you to push every watt through the pedals. This particularly suits the way I like to wear cycling shoes, which I can only describe as ratcheted down as tight as possible. In direct comparison, I have found other brands of off-road shoes, particularly specialized shoes, are often not conducive to being tightened more than the designers expect the average rider likes to wear their shoes. Many competing brands rely too much on padding, which leads to inconsistent fit under pressure. This element of variable compression in the shoe means it’s hard to get a consistent feeling of the fit under pressure as the foam padding compresses differently each time. QUOC shoes made me realise that a clever leather design doesn’t need any padding at all and will be just as comfortable, if not more so, than any comparable synthetic and padded cycling shoe in comparison.
One of the potential trade-offs of the Gran tourer’s unique construction is weight. My 42EU pair comes in at 330g per shoe, which feels high in direct comparison to say the Shimano RX8 but in reality its only slightly above average when you look at a wider picture of shoes on the market.
Competing MTB shoe comparison
I think we also need to be forgiving of the weight factor with the Gran Tourer XC as it is not a shoe that attempts to be low weight, in QUOC’s own words they set out to make the “ultimate, off-road adventure shoe.” Weight is not top of the list of priorities when it comes to off road adventure normally and the growing length of Gravel Races globally combines with the growing speeds would suggest stiffness and comfort are likely more important for many. Having said that if weight is a key factor when buying shoes for yourself there may be more suitable options, certainly not as smart looking however.
Later in 2023 I used the Gran Tourers at the Rapha Pennine Rally, a 500km ultra ride across the UK from Edinburgh to Manchester. My love for the shoes grew even more and I found they performed excellently both on the bike and when “hiking a biking” up some of the course's more aggressive gradients and unrideable sections. The tread is grippy but not excessive in its approach and includes holes for spikes if you take the shoes cross-racing on muddy courses. I didn’t get any foot-specific discomfort across the whole 500km and could still put out reliable power through the carbon soles for the duration. Achieving comfort and power is not a common trait across cycling shoes and the common consensus is you have to trade one for the other, these days this is a slightly outdated idea and QUOC certainly demonstrates this.
After the Pennine Rally, I began to feel like I had finally found the shoe for me, a true all-rounder that can take whatever you throw at it! I put close to 10,000km into the QUOC’s (about half of my annual total) and at this point, my shoes did start to show signs of wear about a year after I got them. The wear started at the 15,000km mark and I think considering the amount of km’s and the style of riding I was doing with them with heavy amounts of walking on rough terrain. The wear I saw was scuffing on the leather, which was purely cosmetic, and not really any cause for concern. Much like a bike, if you use it a lot and as intended, it’s going to show signs of use. The biggest hit my pair took was last year in the 2024 TRAKA 360 race. Eagle-eyed readers will see a scuff on the toe box of my right shoe in the below image which was inflicted in a crash earlier in the race. The scuff now serves as a nice reminder of a tough day out on the bike. Larger scuffs can show up as black on these shoes as the coloured coating on the top of the shoe scratches away.
My GT XC’s got some war wounds at the 2024 TRAKA after a crash, but they still look good!
At €275,00, £240 or around $300 the GT XC is not a cheap shoe, but I don’t think it’s trying to be. It sits atop a pyramid of options from QUOC that come under the price tag of the GT XC and is designed to be the premium offering in the lineup of their off-road shoes. When you compare the design effort put into the shoe and its comparatively unique look and feel against other shoes at the same relative price range the GT XC does stand out. I fear the only thing holding it back from increased mass market success is cyclists unwilling to take a risk on a brand that doesn’t embrace the accepted norms of cycling shoe design. Quocs sponsorship of Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas will do a lot in the coming years to help those considering the brand move past any misconceptions.
After years of heavy use and thousands of kilometres, the Gran Tourer XC shoes have proven themselves as a reliable, high-performance, and stylish choice for all kinds of riding. From gravel races to ultra-distance adventures, they’ve struck the perfect balance between comfort, durability, and power transfer—dispelling any doubts I once had about fashion-forward cycling brands. The natural wear they’ve accumulated only adds character, serving as a testament to their resilience. For those seeking a performance-driven, stylish, and durable cycling shoe, the GT XC proves that QUOC is not just about aesthetics—it's about delivering at the highest level.
