Italian footwear brand Udog has dropped a new gravel shoe: the FORZA. While Udog is best known for road models like the CIMA and CENTO, FORZA marks only their second gravel offering, following the Distanza. Wataru put it to the test — here’s what we found.
Reviewer
 | Wataru | Sendai Works at an advertising agency. Always on the move — pushing through brutal training rides for races, taking his beloved JEEP out on drives, or tweeting his daily thoughts on X as naturally as breathing. Lives with a rabbit. BMC Teammachine R01, Cannondale SuperX @watastagram178 |
review / Wataru（@watastagram178）
text & photo / Tats（@tats_lovecyclist）
*The FORZA reviewed here was provided by Udog. All opinions are LOVE CYCLIST’s own.
Udog FORZA
The name UDOG comes from “underdog” — the one with no shot at winning. Founded by Alberto Fonte, former brand director at Fizik, the company carries that contrarian spirit straight into its product philosophy.
Udog sees gravel riding as “not something to compete in, but a way to find balance.” And it’s true — gravel rides feel different from tarmac. There’s something feral about them, a sense of placing yourself inside nature and negotiating your way through it. The gravel scene has been tilting hard toward racing lately, but for us, riding is still adventure, not competition. Hollering with our friends across rough terrain, inching forward one pedal stroke at a time. It’s reassuring that Udog’s gravel shoes are designed to sit alongside that feeling.
The FORZA joins the previously reviewed Distanza as the second model in Udog’s off-road lineup. It’s built for gravel riders, adventure cyclists, and bikepackers, under a design brief that refuses to compromise on “fit, comfort, or style.”
Udog Gravel Shoe Lineup
FORZA | DISTANZA | DISTANZA CARBON
The FORZA inherits the DISTANZA’s design language but differs in closure system and outsole
| FORZA NEW | DISTANZA | DISTANZA CARBON | |
| Sizes | 38–48 (no half sizes) | ||
| Colors | Black / Grey | White / Grey | Black |
| Upper | Water-repellent engineered mesh | ||
| Closure | Twist Tech dial | Flat laces (TWS) | |
| Outsole | Nylon carbon | Full carbon | |
| Weight *size 42 | 320g | 330g | 315g |
| Price (incl. tax) | ¥35,200 | ¥30,800 | ¥42,900 |
The FORZA comes only with a nylon carbon outsole — there’s no full-carbon version. Its closure uses the Twist Tech dial, designed to wrap the entire foot evenly. None of the three models is objectively “better” than the others; each takes a different approach to fit and usability.
FORZA Outsole 7.0 with a nylon carbon composite core, a water-repellent engineered mesh upper, and a single-dial closure via Twist Tech
A long, complicated history with shoes
Wataru has spent most of his riding life on the road, but in 2026 a Cannondale SuperX joined the garage and gravel entered the picture. His gravel road career may be short, but he spent the pandemic years on an MTB, so unpaved terrain feels like home. With the SuperX now his main bike, his style has shifted: cruise through anything, paved or not, without overthinking it.
Shoe fit, however, has always been a persistent problem. With the classic Japanese foot — wide and high-arched — there’s a recurring set of complaints: a heel cup and arch that don’t quite lock in, toes that can’t move freely, height issues from the instep through to the toes, and pressure on the little toe. The higher the performance, the narrower the last tends to be, and across my road shoe history there have been more than a few cases of “the spec sheet is flawless, but the fit just isn’t there.”
Against that backdrop, Udog’s road shoe CIMA was the one that actually fit. No stress at the toes, none at the heel, no complaints even after long hours on the bike. If road went that well, surely a gravel shoe from Udog would too — that was the thinking.
FORZA Review
The FORZA’s design pulls back from full-on race aesthetics. The grey upper feels smart and urban.
The deep heel cup cradles the heel solidly — no slipping, no discomfort. I wouldn’t say it’s “dramatically better” than Specialized or Shimano’s XC series, but because the heel cup isn’t shaped in any unusual way, it’s designed to hold steady regardless of foot type.
The toe box is generous — no pressure on the toes
There’s a single Twist Tech dial, so rather than fine-tuning the tension like a two-dial system, one twist wraps the whole foot evenly. It doesn’t deliver that locked-in, vice-like feel, but compared to the flat laces of the Distanza, you can dial in adjustments quickly mid-ride — and on terrain that shifts constantly like gravel, that practicality really shows.
Even with a high instep, there’s no tight, pinched feeling. The engineered mesh upper molds to the foot without pressure points, so when your feet start to swell a few hours into the ride, there’s still room to breathe.
Coming from years of riding carbon-soled racing shoes, the FORZA’s nylon-carbon sole doesn’t feel like stepping on a plank. But it isn’t soft either — push 1000W and you won’t sense any flex, so the stiffness is more than sufficient.
And on longer rides, the impression shifts again: there’s noticeably less leg fatigue in the back half compared to a traditional racing shoe. The Distanza offers a full-carbon option, and while you might wonder if the FORZA’s nylon-carbon comes up short, for gravel purposes it really doesn’t.
The rubber outsole makes walking easy
Balance for our gravel rides.
Udog says “gravel riding is a way to find balance” — and once you slip into the FORZA, that line lands.
The nylon-carbon sole doesn’t have the plank-like stiffness of pure carbon, and there’s just a single dial closure. On paper it reads like an entry-level model, but feel how your legs hold up after a long day in the saddle and you realize this is exactly what was intended. These aren’t tools built in single-minded pursuit of speed — they’re built to keep you riding, far and happy.
That’s the kind of shoe a gravel ride needs — one where you’re digging out new dirt roads, hollering as you go, riding into the unknown. The truth is, Japan doesn’t really offer the racing-grade speed playgrounds that today’s gravel racing scene revolves around. It’s less about racing here and more about adventure: managing yourself out in nature, mile by mile. For that raw, lived-in gravel of ours, the FORZA fits right in.
Buy the Udog FORZA (TOKYO WHEELS)
review / Wataru（@watastagram178）
text & photo / Tats（@tats_lovecyclist）
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