Originally Posted by freddiesan
Clipless shoes are more solid/sturdy and gives you better transfer of power to your pedals. If you're biking 10 hours a day that may be a more effective solution than having soft sneakers. Clipless gives you also better control since you're actually clipped to your bike. Clipless is also better for safety reasons since they clip out automatically if you crash - clips don't.
I'm all for clips as a civilian because the hassle with changing shoes is not appealing. Clipless shoes can be found in a "sneaker" version but they're never as good looking as a nice pair of Adidas or Nike.
I know this because I was a bikemessenger for 3 1/2 years in both Stockholm, Sweden and Copenhagen, Denmark.
Almost all the messengers and in san francisco that ride a FIXED GEAR bicycles and almost all the people that have been riding fixed for a long time on city streets ride with clips and straps. (Clipless is for road and mtn bikes!). Why? Because they know that clipless is unsafe on a fixed gear bicycle that does not have a handbrake (and even with a handbrake it is dangerous). They are unsafe because they are DESIGNED to release under certain amount of strain and when your foot moves sideways. This causes accidental unclipping when you least want it for example pulling a hockey stop at a busy intersection. With clips and straps this is not the case as long as you buy decent straps and check them every once in a while. True you can get more better power transfer with clipless shoes than with adidas sambas, but is you get some proper cycling shoes with a hard sole the difference is minimal.