Northwave Blade Shoecover

The Northwave Blade 2 overshoes, or Shoecover as Northwave like to call them, fall into the neoprene camp for overshoes. If you haven't come across this style of overshoe before it is basically like a wetsuit, water will eventually get through but the material should trap warmth and keep your tootsies toasty.

The material itself is 2.8mm thick all round and the XL provided a good close fit on my size 10s without being too snug. My usual commuting shoes just use Velcro closures but the Shoecover had plenty of room the buckle and ratchet on my fancier weekend shoes. There is a range of sizes from small to XXL.

The front cut out provides plenty of cleat clearance, big enough even for SPD-SL's which are probably the biggest cleats on the market. There is also a rear cut out for your heel block reducing damage to the overshoe when you're walking about. They are both reinforced which stops any fraying of the material.

Coming in a range of bright colours (red, blue and white outers with black inners) along with the standard all black, daylight visibility is good plus a reflective strip running either side of the zip adds some extra visibility during the hours of darkness. With your feet constantly moving this helps identify you as a cyclist from a fair distance and is eye-catching to drivers.

I had a few issues with the zip on the left one but once I found that I hadn't pulled the zip down true and rectified it, no more problems. The zips themselves work well, the large plastic tab allows you to do them up with gloves on and once up they don't drop when you start pedalling. A handy looped tab is also added to keep the overshoes taut as you pull the zip up.

Performance wise I was pleasantly surprised as they kept road spray and rain at bay for longer than my usual overshoes which cost twice as much. A lot of this is down to the snug fit around your leg, this is normally the weak link with any overshoe as water runs down your leg and into your shoe. On the occasions when water did get in my feet stayed warm and I only realised when I took my shoes off to find damp socks. Now that the winter in these southern parts has finally kicked in the Blade 2's are warm enough down to -2 or so worn with a pair of Woolie Boolies which is pretty good I reckon. When it got really chilly adding a pair of toe covers between shoe and overshoe, coped with -6 degrees no problem.

The Blade 2s are pretty spot on price wise and taking the performance into account they're good value for money. They should last pretty well to as after a decent period of daily use they still look the same as when they came out of the packet.

Verdict

Good quality with impressive performance, plus enough colour options to match your bike or kit.