Best gravel shoes 2025: All the best options for every kind of gravel cycling

best gravel shoes
(Image credit: Future / Will Jones)

Gravel shoes are now a well-established segment; long gone are the days of putting up with standard mountain bike shoes. Now most brands have some gravel-specific footwear in their range focusing on either performance or adventure ends of the gravel spectrum.

The best gravel shoes take the majority of their design notes from the best road bike shoes but are overbuilt to some degree to take on the varying challenges that gravel riding offers. Given how diverse gravel riding has become, encompassing everything from what is basically road racing off-road to carrying your bike up a mountain, it's no surprise to see that diversity is now reflected in the available options on the market, almost mirroring the best gravel tyres for diversity. 

Recent updates

Last updated on 22nd of January 2025

This guide was last reviewed in January 2025, when all the gravel bike shoes below were still currently stocked models. Buy If and Don't By If bullet points were added for all the products to simplify buying advice. The format has also been adjusted to improve navigation on the page.

Will Jones
Senior Tech Writer

Will joined the Cyclingnews team as a reviews writer in 2022, having previously written for Cyclist, BikeRadar and Advntr. He’s tried his hand at most cycling disciplines, from the standard mix of road, gravel, and mountain bike, to the more unusual like bike polo and tracklocross. He’s made his own bike frames, covered tech news from the biggest races on the planet, and published countless premium galleries thanks to his excellent photographic eye. Also, given he doesn’t ever ride indoors he’s become a real expert on foul-weather riding gear. His collection of bikes is a real smorgasbord, with everything from vintage-style steel tourers through to superlight flat bar hill climb machines.

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