Ride Concepts Accomplice Clip BOA
Test Locations: Washington
Test Duration: 5 months
Reviewer: 6’, 170 lb / 183 cm, 77.1 kg
Size Tested: US 10
Blister’s Measured Weight per shoe (US 10): 467 and 469 g / 16.5 & 16.5 oz
Upper: Nylon w/ suede lace insert
Closure: BOA
Sizes Offered:
- US Men’s 7–15 (half sizes 7–13)
- US Women’s 5–10 (half sizes for the full range)
Pedals Used: Shimano XTR Trail, HT X2, HT X3, HT T2
MSRP: $150
Intro
Ride Concepts says that their Accomplice line of shoes was “built with comfort and versatility in mind” and they’re meant to be a lightweight, breathable option with casual styling that belies a number of performance-oriented features.
The Accomplice family comprises eight total shoes, with men’s and women’s versions in both flat and clip flavors, with lace and BOA closure options for all of them. Their designs are generally similar apart from the obvious differences in outsole design and closure mechanism. I’ve been spending a bunch of time in the men’s Accomplice Clip BOA, and it’s not quite like anything else I’ve tried to date. And while the Accomplice Clip BOA has a few quirks, it also does some things really well, and just might be what certain folks are looking for.
Features and Construction
The Accomplice shoes slot into an ever-growing category of models that are meant to bridge the gap between burly skate shoe-inspired options and XC-derived ones, with understated looks and and a relatively thin, breathable upper and a medium-stiff midsole with a wide, grippy outsole. The Accomplice Clip BOA uses a minimally padded and very breathable nylon upper with a stretchy pseudo tongue (it’s all one piece, rather than the tongue being a truly separate part of the upper), an EVA midsole with a nylon shank to stiffen things up underfoot, and a fairly flat, skate-shoe-style outsole with a shallow hexagonal tread pattern along its full length. A single BOA dial handles closure duty.
The Accomplice Clip BOA’s upper has a moderate toe cap for protection up front but is otherwise lightly padded through the forward part of the shoe; the padding bulks up a bit through the heel and ankle area, but the Accomplice Clip BOA is not a super heavily padded shoe overall. The ankle opening is low cut, without padding over the inner ankle.
The BOA dial on the Accomplice Clip BOA detracts from the casual look a little bit, but they’re still a sharp-looking shoe in my opinion, and the lace versions could pass for a regular street shoe.
Those casual looks hide what’s actually a relatively stiff midsole, though — a skate shoe with a cleat mount slapped on this is not. The midsole softens up a little bit in the toebox for improved walkability, but it’s fairly stout through most of its length. As per usual for Ride Concepts, the cleat slots are relatively long (offering 42 mm of position adjustment) and notably far back on the shoe. I often find myself running my cleats all the way rearward on a lot of shoes (and sometimes would like to go farther back, especially on more XC-oriented ones) but have some room to play with on the Accomplice Clip BOA. There’s a ton of room to go forward, for folks who’d prefer that, and I think they’ve done a good job of accommodating a realistic range of cleat position options for this sort of shoe.
Fit
I’ve been wearing the Accomplice Clip BOA in my usual US men’s 10, and I’d say that they run true to size, with a generally middle-of-the-road fit.
I’ve got a wide forefoot but a narrower heel, and as is often the case for me in footwear of various sorts, the Accomplice Clip BOA is a little narrower than would be ideal at the 5th metatarsal head, in particular, but fits pretty well everywhere else. The Accomplice Clip BOA’s upper is lightly stretchy and quite pliable, which helps it accommodate my wider forefoot to some extent, but it’s limited by the shape of the midsole, and there’s a little more pressure on the outside of my midfoot than I’d like.
But again, that part of my feet (especially my right) is notably wide, so it’s mostly a me problem, and I think the Accomplice Clip BOA should fit quite well for a lot of folks with relatively average foot shapes. The Accomplice Clip BOA feels generally medium volume all around, and the relatively soft, pliable upper should help avoid major pressure points, too.
On the Bike
The short version is that the Accomplice Clip BOA is one of the better options I’ve tried to date for folks who want a shoe that fits more like a burlier gravity-oriented shoe but is lighter, more breathable, and features a somewhat stiffer sole than most options in that class.
The breathability part of that is especially noteworthy — the Accomplice Clip BOA is a very cool, well-ventilated shoe. That meant that there were a lot of days over the Pacific Northwest winter where it wasn’t so cold and wet that I wanted an actual winter shoe, but that a regular shoe that just happens to be a bit warmer and more water resistant than the Accomplice Clip BOA was my happy middle ground. (I’m still a huge fan of the Specialized 2FO DH in that role.)
But I was able to spend a bunch of warmer days in the Accomplice Clip BOA, both last fall and then again in the spring, and the temperature threshold at which they become comfortable for me isn’t that high — maybe in the low 50s F / around 10° C, as long as it’s not too wet out — and their breathability becomes a real asset as things warm up from there. Even compared to things like the Crank Brothers Mallet Trail BOA, which I recently praised for being relatively breathable, the Accomplice Clip BOA is another step up.
That ultra-breathable upper presented one minor downside for me, though, apart from simply being cold in lower temperatures. Occasionally when really getting off the side of the bike and putting a lot of body English into steering the bike with my hips, it would feel like my outside foot was rolling outward more than I’d expected it would, making my connection to the bike feel a little more vague and imprecise than I wanted it to be. I think the Accomplice Clip BOA’s upper just has enough stretch to it that the level of support it offers in those situations is down a touch compared to a lot of burlier, more heavily structured shoes.
That never caused me any major issues, and I only really noticed it in fairly specific situations when descending (see the photo below for an example of what I’m talking about, though I’m admittedly not wearing the Accomplice Clip BOA in that one). I’d bet that a lot of folks won’t notice, or particularly care, and I don’t want to blow that particular quirk out of proportion — but I do think it’ll be noticeable for some riders, especially those on the more aggressive descending end of the spectrum. Ride Concepts, of course, makes several shoes more specifically tailored to DH duty anyway, and the extra breathability the Accomplice Clip BOA offers compared to every single other MTB shoe I’ve tried to date, short of full-on XC options, will absolutely make it a worthwhile tradeoff for a lot of people.
Really cranking down on the BOA dial helped a little bit, but also applied more pressure than I wanted over the top of my (moderately high) instep, and I didn’t need to go wild with the dial to keep my heel planted in the shoe — the sensation I’m describing wasn’t heel lift — so I’ve preferred to just live with that very occasional funny sensation.
And the rest of the time, I’ve really liked the Accomplice Clip BOA. The sole stiffness feels very well tailored to providing a solid pedaling platform without being turbo stiff and punishing for it, even when descending on a hardtail; they’re super comfortable (though, again, folks with especially wide feet are probably better off elsewhere); and the breathability really is outstanding.
I tried the Accomplice Clip BOA with a variety of pedals, including ones with a medium-sized platform (HT T2 and Shimano XTR Trail) and some bigger DH-oriented ones (HT X2 and X3), and while the Accomplice Clip BOAs work fine with both, they feel a little better suited to the smaller, more Trail-oriented pedals. With the bigger platform of the X2 and X3, I needed to shim the cleat outward a little bit for the pedal body to not interfere with the clipping in motion, in particular. That worked fine but also meant that the shoe and pedal didn’t interface as well around the middle of the pedal body, mitigating the extra support that the bigger platform could, in theory, provide.
Off the Bike
The Accomplice Clip BOAs walk fine for an all-rounder Trail shoe. The rubber outsole has good grip on rocks and other harder surfaces, but the shallow tread doesn’t get as much purchase in really loose, soft soil as some blockier options out there. The heel pocket holds my average-width heel well enough to avoid any issues with chafing, and the forward part of the midsole is flexible enough to make the walking motion feel much more natural than it does with super stiff-soled XC shoes.
Durability
The Accomplice Clip BOA has held up nicely for me so far. I wouldn’t expect the upper to be the absolute most abrasion-resistant option out there if you’re banging it into a ton of rocks all the time, but mine are doing great so far, and I think that’s a more than fair tradeoff for how breathable the Accomplace Clip BOAs are.
Bottom Line
The Accomplice Clip BOA isn’t quite like any other mountain bike shoe I’ve tried to date. They combine a casual aesthetic (the lace version even more so than the BOA one I tested) with a stiffer sole and much, much better breathability than most skate-inspired sorts of shoes, and for a lot of folks, that could be a winning combination. They’d fit me better, personally, if the forefoot was just a touch wider, and the super breathable upper isn’t quite as supportive as many beefier options out there, but if the fit works for you and you’re not insistent on getting the absolute most solid-feeling connection to the bike, there’s a lot to like here.