Fizik has officially launched the Vega Carbon, its futuristic-looking new flagship road shoe which has already been spotted on the feet of its sponsored Movistar riders. According to the Italian brand, the Vega Carbon features a “host of innovative advancements, including an updated anatomical shape, strategically mapped materials, and an integrated outsole.”
Designed around a new ergonomic foot shape with a straighter axis, reduced heel-to-toe drop and expanded toe box, Fizik says this reflects the changing needs of modern riders and enhances stability, reduces fatigue and improves overall comfort. The construction of the shoe is also different from anything Fizik has previously done. Effectively bringing the carbon outsole inside the shoe and wrapping the upper around it brings the foot closer to the pedal, reducing stack height and maximising power transfer. Fizik uses a woven fabric called Aeroweave PRO that’s coupled with a thin translucent mesh that it says supplies improved breathability and weight saving while also retaining tenacity. “By strategically mapping and utilizing distinct materials in specific areas, Vega Carbon ensures exceptional performance without compromise, making it the ideal choice for intense, high-output rides,” says the brand.
Rouleur talked to Carlo Bertante, Fizik’s head of footwear development, about the novel ideas behind the Vega. “It comes after more than three years of tests that we’ve been doing, and the feedback from the pros was fundamental in the development of this shoe,” he says. Fizik sponsors the Movistar squad but it also has a product-testing team that includes former professional cyclist Alessandro Ballan, a former world champion and Tour of Flanders winner. “The feedback these guys can give is on another level,” says Bertante. “After the number of hours they’ve spent on a bike they have a kind of sensitivity – they can feel with their feet.”
The first objective, Bertante explains, was to bring the shape of the shoe’s ‘last’ – the 3D template created for moulding it – closer to the biometric features of the foot itself. Up until this point cycling shoe manufacturers have treated the upper and the outsole as separate components, but this results in edges where the upper joins the outsole and, as Bertante points out, human feet don’t have edges. So Fizik looked beyond cycling shoes for a better design. “Shoes for rock climbing, for example, surround the lower foot, so we came up with an idea to include the structural part – the outsole – inside the shoe, so that we didn’t have to glue the upper to an edge.” He explains that to achieve this, the Vega uses a contoured structural shank, the section conventionally between the insole and the outsole, made from laminated carbon with a foam core to reduce the weight. “It’s curved, and it follows the shape of the foot. It was a new concept, but we evolved it from our Stabilita model, which has the medial part of the shoe independent of the outsole allowing us to wrap it around the foot better.”
With the outsole effectively inside the shoe, Fizik was also able to reduce the Vega’s stack height by a claimed 2.3mm, bringing the foot closer to the pedal for improved stability and increased power transfer. “We evolved the concept even further,” continues Bertante. With the edges of the shoe smoothed out thanks to the integrated outsole, it was time for the Fizik engineers to work on adding comfort to the upper itself. The answer was a material called Aeroweave PRO, a breathable, high-tenacity mesh-like fabric that wraps evenly around the entire foot from the bottom of the shoe upwards. This is an evolution of the system used in the Fizik Vento Powerstrap Aeroweave. The woven fabric interlaces nylon fibres with filaments of thermoplastic polymers, providing the strength and support required in competition, and is very lightweight. Bertante explains that for the Vega, the new Aeroweave PRO layer is separate from the closure system, which deploys two Boa Li2 dials and, he says, will eliminate the need for sprinters to reach down and overtighten their shoes as they prepare for their maximal effort out of the saddle. “One is for comfort and the other is for precision,” he explains.
Fizik’s research also convinced them that it was advantageous to provide extra space in the toebox: “We were able to achieve a better fit than with the [previous flagship race shoe] Infinito. We gave more room for the foot to spread under pedalling force, to spread the metatarsals. The research that we analysed told us that we needed a close fit for optimal power transfer. But all the biomechanical studies indicated that it’s vital for the metatarsals to be able to spread perfectly so that it’s not just the first and the fifth in touch with the shoe – this is not natural. It’s the same concept with barefoot running. So we incorporated this into our developments.”
Finally, Fizik addressed the more superficial but crucial details that its pro athletes had highlighted after racing in its existing models. “The more stitching, thread and seams that you put into the shoe, the more friction points you risk creating,” says Bertante. “So everything that you see here in terms of stitching is reduced to the minimum. Whenever we were able to do it, we limited stitching to the outer layer only, so that it’s not in contact with the foot.” He points to the soft, stretchy collar-like section at the ankle. “We had to develop, together with our manufacturing partner, a specific machine that can apply heat and pressure to a piece that is already formed as you see it, as opposed to flat and two-dimensional. It’s a small detail, but we really pushed to remove all the stitching from this area, because the feedback that we got from the market, from our testers and from the pros as well, shows that this area is critical for avoiding friction points. Your ankle is constantly moving during pedalling.”
It took 16 different iterations of the Vega before Fizik settled on the final version that would be used by the Movistar team and which would go into production. “It’s always very subjective – some riders feel that the outsole is very stiff, too stiff or not stiff enough,” says Bertante. But the Italian brand was able to use its own internal testing facility to aggregate pro rider feedback and to achieve the optimal balance between mechanical stiffness and comfort. A pivotal moment came when one of the Movistar riders started using the Vega in June 2024. “In between the seasons he had tried a prototype that we were not really 100 per cent confident with, but when we knew he was happy with the 16th one, we thought, okay, this is the way.”
Bertante emphasises that although the Vega supplies more space for the metatarsals in the toebox, the overall fit will still feel familiar to Fizik customers. “We wanted to improve the fit rather than change it completely, and that’s what we were able to do. The last is new and the curvature of the internal shank is like nothing else on the market, but our process used enough trial and error, so that we knew it wasn’t so extreme that it wouldn’t fit some people. The sensation of the integrated outsole and the wrap of the upper can be enjoyed and leveraged by all riders.”
In any case, Bertante explains, last shapes are constantly evolving with bike fits and Fizik changes the shape of its shoes every four or five years. “Now we have more room in the toebox and a different cradle in the arch, because those are the features that bike fitters are requesting. If you think about also how the bike-fit position has changed in the past decade, where there are more extreme positions on the road and riders are positioning their cleats further back and closer to the middle of the outsole, you need a different outsole on a different last that can accommodate this. In the past, when cleats were positioned further forward, shoes had more drop, more difference between the metatarsal area where the cleat was positioned, compared to the heel. But nowadays you don't need that difference between the heel height and the metatarsal height, so it's becoming a little bit more natural.” He sums up: “In terms of fit, in terms of comfort for modern road riding, the Vega is going to be groundbreaking.”
The Fizik Vega Carbon will be priced at £389.99/€390.00/$469.99 and is available immediately.
Specifications
-
Aeroweave PRO
-
Dual-Dial Li2 BOA® Fit System
-
Integrated full-carbon outsole
-
Stiffness index 10
-
Weight: 239 g*
-
Sizes: 36-48 (37 to 47 also in half sizes)
-
White and White/Yellow Fluoro
More information about the Vega Carbon at fizik.com and keep an eye out for our own review.
