Posted on May 2, 2022 by Cory Benson

Italian sportswear & shoemaker UYN has created their first gravel and mountain biking shoe with the unique new Naked MTB. The new cycling shoes start with a seamless sock-like upper made of natural castor bean fibers & a hemp insole, then wrapped with a synthetic exoskeleton over a carbon-reinforced sole for support and efficient power delivery to the pedals. The result they say is “so lightweight, breathable and comfortable that you feel like you are riding barefoot“.

c. UYN, ride photos by Mattia Ragni

UYN launched their Naked knit sock with an exoskeleton design concept first as a road shoe. It’s a logical evolution of their similarly-made and lightweight knit mesh running & sailing shoes. But now gravel riders and mountain bikers can get the same barefoot riding feel with the new UYN Naked MTB shoes.

UYN calls it a sock-like or even barefoot fit, but it still appears to be a regular style shoe best worn with cycling socks. To be honest, though, I’d be curious to see if the shoes are as soft & fitted as a sock that they could be worn sockless?

The off-road shoes evolve the seamless, ultra-breathable upper sock by using a new combination of organic & synthetic yarns, knit together to balance the desired stretch and ventilation with extra durability and cut-resistance.

The 2-layer 3D knit – lighter and faster drying 100% bio Natex castor bean fibers on the inside & Hi-Force TPU-reinforced yarn on the outside – allows for a shaped one-piece construction that closely wraps around the foot offering stretchy support without hot spots.

In between the two, a semi-rigid stability frame offers extra lateral stability and prevents foot roll in the otherwise soft construction.

Plus, with the addition of liquid rubber toe & heel protections added on, it also means an easier to clean finish for riding in the dirt & mud off-road.

A classic lugged XC MTB style sole is made of carbon-reinforced nylon for balanced stiffness and durability, with replaceable toe spikes. And inside, the insole itself is made of natural hemp to keep your feet dry and freshly ventilated even on the hottest rides

Then wrapping it all together, a recycled synthetic fiber Exoframe exoskeleton dials in a supportive fit between the stiff sole and adaptable upper. A single proprietary Micro-Tune Boa-style wire & dial retention lets you fine-tune the fit with asymmetric zig-zag lacing across the foot.

The new UYN Naked MTB shoes are available now for 279€ in whole EU sizes from 39-47, direct from UYN or their partner retailers.

The shoes are 100% made-in-Italy, and come in three colors, all sharing the same black sole, black Exoframe & light blue detailing. The all-black version is the most conventional-looking, while military Green starts to hint at the unique construction, and the sand-colored Bronze lays bare how the sock is differentiated from the structure of the shoes.

Cory Benson is the EU Tech Editor of Bikerumor.com.

Cory has been writing about mountain bikes, enduro, cyclocross, all-road, gravel bikes & bikepacking on and off for over 25 years, since before several of these even had names in our industry.

Prior to that (and at times, concurrently), Cory worked as an Architect specializing in environmental sustainability, a IBD bike shop designer & consultant, an independent product designer, a bike shop mechanic, and a mountain biking instructor.

Based in the Czech Republic for over 15 years, Cory spends much of his time traveling around Europe, riding bikes, and meeting directly with many of cycling’s key European product developers, industry experts & tastemakers for an in-depth review of what’s new, and what’s coming next. A technical off-road rider at heart since the 1990s, Cory’s cycling has evolved to cover everything from the wide range of riding aero road bikes on dirt roads to thrashing enduro bikes in the European bikeparks & trail centers, with plenty of XC, CX & gravel in between.

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Very cool (pun intended) concept. Temperature management of the feet is a bigger deal than most realize.

In theory these are a great idea. In practice, from my observation, they are also about as durable as a pair of socks. A friend got a pair. Loved the fit and feel. And after going on a 10 day cycling holiday they were completely ruined. Toe and heel area were all fraying. Most of his kit is pristine after after thousands of kilometers … I’d imagine these MTB versions will fare even worse as they’re using the same non- durable material on a shoe for a use-case that’s going to be abused. They’re a running shoe company mainly. Maybe their philosophy is that high mileage riders like high mileage runners should get a new pair after about 4 months. But that’s patently ridiculous as cyclic is not an impact sport.

Looks like a great shoe for a hot gravel ride, but I’ve caught the toe of my shoe on enough snags that these scare me.

No Toe-protection? That would be an absolute deal-breaker.

Deal-breaker? More like a foot-breaker. An MTB shoe with no protection against striking a rock/root – absolute no-go.

© Copyright 2022 Bikerumor, All Rights Reserved