100 pairs of 'Zen warrior' shoe made with exclusive BOA design
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The Tejay van Garderen PRO Leader II shoes go on sale on Friday(Image credit: Ben Delaney / Future Publishing)
van Garderen requested two motifs: Zen warrior and a diamond, as a nod to his daughter's birthstone(Image credit: Ben Delaney / Future Publishing)
The limited edition shoe is similar to the PRO Leader II, but has a new BOA dial and the custom graphics, of course(Image credit: Ben Delaney / Future Publishing)
You can't use Samurai swords in UCI racing. But you can have them in your shoes(Image credit: Ben Delaney / Future Publishing)
Our test 45.5 size weighed 268g per shoe(Image credit: Ben Delaney / Future Publishing)
Founded in Japan, Pearl Izumi is largely based in Colorado now, but is owned by another Japanese company, Shimano(Image credit: Ben Delaney / Future Publishing)
100 pairs of these shoes were made(Image credit: Ben Delaney / Future Publishing)
The new BOA IP-1 reel ratchets for micro adjustments in both directions. Standard BOA dials only ratchet to tighten(Image credit: Ben Delaney / Future Publishing)
American BMC rider Tejay van Garderen has been on Pearl Izumi shoes for a while now, and for this year's Tour de France, the Colorado company made 100 Tejay limited edition pairs with Zen warrior graphics on the soles and insoles.
The shoes also feature a new BOA closure that ratchets in both directions.
The illustrations on the sole show a Samurai-looking figure standing with two swords on the sole, in front of a diamond that represents van Garderen's daughter's birthstone. On the insole, the figure is wielding one sword over his head.
"Tejay wanted graphics to represent his 'Zen warrior' mentality," said Pearl Izumi brand manager, Andrew Hammond. "He's pretty fired up on the design."
The new BOA IP-1 reel is exclusive to Pearl Izumi, and, for now, is only featured on this Tejay van Garderen PRO Leader II shoe. While standard BOA designs pop open to loosen, and then ratchet one way to tighten, this reel also ratchets the opposite direction for incremental loosening as well as tightening.
The new BOA IP-1 reel micro-adjusts in both directions
Pearl claims the seamless upper to be the thinnest on the market, at a skinny .9mm thick.
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Stay tuned for a review of the shoe, and in the meantime check out our profiles of van Garderen's BMC Timemachine time trial bike and SLR01 road bike and this review of the BMC teammachine SLR01 Ultegra, a more down to earth model with the same top-end frame that BMC is currently racing.
