Shoes for Powergrips+Work?
 

Here's the situation:

I currently run WTB MTB pedals with powergrips on my IRO Jamie Roy commuter and it's a pain in the arse to get my Red Wing steel toes into the pedals (because of the big lump caused by the steel toe). After wearing the steel toes day to day for the past year and not having gotten any injuries at work whatsover (I work in retail as a receiver/supervisor), they've starting tearing up and getting caught every which way on the WTB pedals

These are the pedals I currently have:

http://www.universalcycles.com/shopp...p?category=394

And so I need new shoes that can also be worn with black slacks as a professional look (even though I work in the backroom at work, I also have general merchandise floor duties and I gotta look the part). So far I've only considered the 661 Hammer Shoes

http://www.sixsixone.com/media/store...ct/6672-00.jpg

Any other suggestions or are these shoes okay? And another thing, how do they size these things?

There appears to be a sizing chart on the website, giving both cycling and 'traditional' sizing.

Wouldn't it be easier to keep your work shoes at work?

I would keep my work shoes at work but due to a recent buyout, the new company says that employees can no longer keep anything in the lockers overnight. Personal belongings are to be emptied out of the lockers at the end of every day and the assigned locks returned to management. Horrible policy but it does prove effective against some types of theft.

Steel toed shoes are considered PPE (personal protective equipment). If your company has a requirement to wear PPE in certain job tasks (" ... I work in the backroom ..." ), then your steel toes are NOT personal items) but required PPE.

I don't know of any company worth their weight in "on the job" injury lawsuits that wouldn't allow an employee to keep PPE at work.

+1

Ping your boss on keeping steel toed shoes at work. Do you have fork lifts? If so, I wouldn't forgo the steel toed shoes.

I don't recommend buying shoes online. You gotta try them on.

you can always carry them in using a backpack... shouldn't be too cumbersome...

Well I was really just looking for an excuse to buy a new pair of work shoes that'll also be compatible with my pedal setup. After all my steel toes are tearing apart from every which way and a new pair of Red Wings would cost me around 200 dollars.

And yes we do have a lift at work but I'm the only one that wears steel toes there (I've had a pallet jack with a full load run over my foot in a truck on a downward slope) and I'm starting to find it sort of useless because we don't use hand jacks anymore, we've since upgraded to electric jacks and second, I really don't drop much stuff anymore.

Bottom line is, I need new shoes that are backward-compatible.

You have to keep your safety in mind. All it takes is one accident to make you regret not having the steel toed shoes. But anyways. For my Powergrips I have been very successful with indoor soccer shoes. I don't know of any all black ones but if you can find it they work great with Powergrips.

Hi-tec magnum boots. You can get them in steel-toe as well should you need them...