1. Great All purpose shoe with a minor drawback - watch on the sizes
I'll preface this in that the ones purchased from STG are my second pair of the Ikasu's. I'm mostly an ADV/Sport touring type of rider.
For most of my riding career, I've always kinda wondered just WTF "riding" shoes, were good for- I've always been an ATGATT kinda guy and prefer a full sized riding boot. That said, I recently found myself in a situation where I was making some travel overseas vs just taking the moto across the US or Canada like I have in years past. However, I was going to rent a moto for just a small part of my overseas trip (gotta scratch that two wheeled itch right?) Not wanting to be without ANY protection, I came back to the idea of a riding "shoe" and the idea grew on me.
Fast forward, I picked these up having settled on them as the best compromise for what I wanted- a waterproof shoe that would be good for all day "non moto" stuff, easy to deal with in the airports (no laces) , comfy for walking around and doing some nature hikes in, and then offering a bit more protection than an average shoe for the couple days I'd be on a bike while out on my adventure.
Having already owned a pair of older (and well worn but still waterproof) TCX ADV style boots, I eagerly took the jump here. For the most part, they've worked exactly and even better than I'd hoped for my situation. They are way more supportive than my vans that I normally wear off the bike, the build quality appears to be great as I expected, and they are comfy. They also look nice enough, that when dressed in Khakis and a polo for work they don't look any more out of place than my other coworkers- so at a more casual business environment they work there too, though if the light catches them right (or wrong) you might get an odd look. They've definitely became my primary footwear for just life in general.
Now the bad -really the only "bad" thing about the shoe itself is grip of the soles. These have a little less grip than what I'm used too, and on a wet stone sidewalk overseas I ate it pretty hard while wearing these- that said, I'm about as graceful as a baby dear, but that was a complaint I have heard about them on other reviews and experienced firsthand. I did a few miles of hiking in the Australian bush with these, including through creeks and the like, and never had an issue, other than that rainy morning on the pavers in front of one of the hotels I stayed at. On a bike, it's been a non issue, but keep in mind I do ride mostly ADV style bikes with more aggressive pegs. My current bike is a sport tourer though (Concours) and they've been fine here too, even in the wet. YMMV.
My other concern with them is sizing- I couldn't find these in stock locally and had to order sight unseen, and given that I already have a pair of older TCX boots that fit absolutely perfect, figured the same size in these would yield similar results.. sadly.. in the words of Borat.. NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTT. These run small, which I first thought was break in related, but after some ugly footpain on my smaller toes getting scrunched, later realized was just due to the sizing being a little small. I went up two sizes (euro) as I was hesitant to just go one Euro size up which is like a half size in freedom units. In my older TCX boots, I'm a perfect 46, which is definitely too small in these Ikasu's. I went with a 48, and while they are a tad loose around the ankle, I'm thinking with a pair of thicker socks they'd be right on the money. My feet are super flat, so maybe that has something to do with it as well - I'm normally about a 12 US if that helps anyone. So far, I've worn the larger size for over a week (including long days at work with mile plus walks each day) and they've been awesome. extra plus, these are stupidly easy at the airport and comfy for hours long flights back in coach.
Also, special shoutout to Max and the STG folks for going the extra distance to help me out. STG is local for me, and with a currently hectic work travel situation, I had them hold for local pickup since I was concerned about porch pirates, but thanks to said hectic work schedule, wasn't going to quite get up to STG before they closed, Max stayed a couple extra minutes to personally hand these to me. It might not have seemed like much, but after a month of constantly getting my rear end kicked in at work, having something finally go right despite starting to go wrong was very welcomed and appreciated. That kind of service is why I continually look at STG first when my moto gear is due for an upgrade.
