As they say a picture is worth a thousand words:



On the left is a Pearl Izumi. It's the first shoe I got and my favorite for commuting. Flexible sole and rubber tread for good grip. I could wear these shoes all day.

In the middle was my first attempt at solving my numb toes problem. I figured that the flexible sole of the PI was part of it and although those shoes seemed to fit great, a wider one might help. The white Lakes in the middle are technically SPD compatible, but it turned out that having a regular SPD cleat on a road shoe with little tread is the worst of all worlds. I did find that shimano made a cleat (pictured) with little rubber outriggers. The outriggers managed to make the shoes somewhat walkable and were fairly easy to clip in and out of. At the end of the day, the wider/stiffer Lakes helped with the numbness but didn't completely eliminate it.

After experimenting with a couple of Crank Bros. pedals and still having no joy, I went ahead and got some road pedals. They apparently fixed the numbness problem but sucked for commuting. Even with "Kool Kovers" on the cleats I sounded like I was wearing stilettos when walking on the wood floors of our office building.

My 3rd set of shoes were meant to address the poor walkability and they do for the most part. They're road shoes with big rubber blocks for tread. With the Kool Kovers on they're still noisier than sneakers but no louder than a pair of shoes with a leather sole. They don't click on concrete either. The downside is that the soles are pretty stiff so while they're much better than a typical road shoe, they'd be nobody's first choice for walking around all day. The big rubber blocks for tread also make them heavy and a little harder to clip in.

Here's a better picture of the 3rd shoes: