Giro W Empire ACC shoes review

These classy-looking lace-ups certainly stand out from the Boa and Velcro crowd, but does function follow form?

Giro W Empire ACC Shoes

Giro W Empire ACC shoes

Cycling Weekly Verdict

With an impressive level of adjustability, there is more than meets the eye with these classic-looking lace-ups. Balancing stiffness and comfort there’s a lot to like, but the final decision will probably come down to your opinion on lace-up cycling shoes.

Reasons to buy
  • +

    Good-looking

  • +

    Narrow-fitting

  • +

    Adjustability

  • +

    Replacement parts

  • +

    Reasonably lightweight

  • +

    Stiff

  • +

    Male-specific version available

Reasons to avoid
  • -

    Near impossible to adjust on the move

  • -

    Expensive

  • -

    Limited colour range compared to men's range

You can trust Cycling Weekly. Our team of experts put in hard miles testing cycling tech and will always share honest, unbiased advice to help you choose. Find out more about how we test.

Lace-up cycling shoes have been surfing their renaissance for several years now, with Giro the first brand to stick its retro neck out and work with Cannonade-Drapac (formerly BMC) pro Taylor Phinney to design a lightweight, stiff shoe. Various versions of the Giro Empire shoe have been worn by the likes of Bradley Wiggins, but the women-specific Giro W Empire ACC shoes are a more recent addition to the range.

Construction

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Hannah Bussey

Hannah is Cycling Weekly’s longest-serving tech writer, having started with the magazine back in 2011. She has covered all things technical for both print and digital over multiple seasons representing CW at spring Classics, and Grand Tours and all races in between.

Hannah was a successful road and track racer herself, competing in UCI races all over Europe as well as in China, Pakistan and New Zealand.

For fun, she's ridden LEJOG unaided, a lap of Majorca in a day, won a 24-hour mountain bike race and tackled famous mountain passes in the French Alps, Pyrenees, Dolomites and Himalayas. 

She lives just outside the Peak District National Park near Manchester UK with her partner, daughter and a small but beautifully formed bike collection.