I’ve been wearing Teva’s shoes for the last year or so, the ‘Links’ to start with and now the ‘Links Mid’ as well. My shoes get a pretty hard life, several days a week all year round in all weathers. I’ve ridden 5.10 Impacts, Shimano AM 41 and 42s and  Vans Gravels and the Teva Links are my favourites so far.

I want a shoe that’s grippy, hard wearing, quick to dry, good looking and comfortable to do ‘hike a bike’ as well as pedal all day. The Tevas’s tick all those boxes for me. They’re not as grippy as 5.10s but the plus side is that it’s easier to reposition your foot on the pedal. You do need to make sure you have grippy pedals to make sure you get the best grip, especially in really rough terrain or wet conditions. I’ve been using the excellent DMR Vaults to achieve this. I’d like to see the Tevas come with a more grippy compound in the future so I could get away with using shitty pedals too!

The lower cut ‘Links’ are my favourite out of the two pairs reviewed here for all round riding and walking about in. The ‘Links Mid’ which I love the look, of are a bit more bulky and better suited to shorter rides, dicking about and colder days. They make a great night ride shoe or first choice for the clumsy and frequent crasher! Compared to Shimano’s shoes both Tevas offer a lot more protection from pedal strikes and rock slams as well as being a handy tool in a bar fight. The soles have a decent level of stiffness to them for pedaling, without sacrificing feel. I’m finding that a pair of ‘Links’ are lasting me around 6 months, which is reasonably good for the amount of hammer that my shoes get.

In case you hadn’t noticed it’s been a bit wet this year and the Tevas are the quickest mountain bike shoes to dry. Mine have spent this summer stuffed with newspaper in front of the fire between rides and usually take 1-2 days to dry out depending on the level of soaking. There is less ‘spongy bulk’ to the shoe and this combined with the magic ‘ion-mask’ water repellant coating they have helps the drying process. Having said that the ion-mask does seem to wear off after a few months riding.

Style is a personal thing, but I like the way these shoes look like shoes rather than golf wear. I particularly like the understated grey/purple and all black designs, but if you like a bit of dandy then you can always liven up your look with the spare coloured laces or go for the yellow/blue model. There are some other cool designs too, check the Teva site.