I know that you should support proper bike shops, and I do when I can.
My eldest lad needed some new trainers so I ended up getting him some Airwalk skate shoes from Sports Direct as he spends most of his time on his skooter and bikes and they were so cheap! I also got some similar ones myself, I thought for £12 for leather ones I couldn't go wrong, and if they weren't the best they'd still do for casual use. Anyway they are pretty grippy and very supportive - not bad at all for the money; I raced in them on Tuesday and practiced in them this morning. I'll still use my suede vans for racing in the summer.
