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Gear

Gallery: Inside Shimano’s California facility

Heat molding shoes, shipping parts, and a bit of calisthenics at Shimano's California facility

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Don't miss a moment from Paris-Roubaix and Unbound Gravel, to the Giro d’Italia, Tour de France, Vuelta a España, and everything in between when you join Outside+.

Inside
When Shimano began supplying dealers directly, I wondered if it would be able to provide the same kind of service as QBP. But seeing the Shimano warehouse/distribution center behind its longtime office building at 1 Holland in Irvine, CA leaves little doubt. The size and technology are impressive, and getting packages filled and shipped rapidly poses no problem. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
Inside
At Shimano’s USA headquarters in Irvine, technicians service an incredible number of fishing reels every day. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
Inside
Tote tubs bar coded for the individual order that will be placed in it go up this spiral conveyor to every level of an automated picking rack. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
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The tubs come zooming back down this spiral slide, laden with Shimano products picked to order. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
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The tubs travel by conveyor to packing stations, where items from the tubs are placed in boxes by hand. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
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Boxes are automatically weighed and measured with a laser, and by the time it reaches the machine that automatically glues on a packing list, the weight and dimension information has been encoded into the shipping label. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
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Directed lunchtime calisthenics for Shimano employees in the company parking lot. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
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Shimano’s new building across Holland Drive now houses a permanent display area of Shimano history and current Shimano products. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
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Penina Bush, Senior Manager of Marketing and Retail Services at Shimano American Corporation, shows off the original Shimano 3.3.3. logo of three crossed spears that appeared on Shozabura Shimano’s singlespeed freewheels. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
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Shimano’s mission statement. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
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Display of Shimano’s many product lines, including Pearl Izumi and G. Loomis. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
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Shimano’s BikeFitting.com adjustable fit bike and fitting station. Built into the bike are force-measuring pedals that can analyze the pedal stroke in fine detail. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
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Shimano’s G. Loomis fishing products. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
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The outsole of Shimano’s superlight and super-stiff XC90 top-end cross-country racing shoes is comprised of a completely rigid sole board overlaid with an equally-rigid carbon forefoot outsole, all encased in a tough, rubberized tread layer, featuring grippy heel knobs and stiff, durable pedal-support knobs. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
Inside
The outsole of the XC70 features a carbon-reinforced nylon sole board, a tread layer with a carbon cleat-support plate integrated with grippy heel knobs and stiff, durable pedal-support knobs. A grippy midfoot sole cover goes on top. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
Inside
The outsole of the XC60 is the same as the outsole of the XC70, except that the XC60’s cleat-support plate is not layered carbon fabric; rather, it is a plastic matrix injected with short carbon fibers. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
Inside
XC70 shoes heating up in the shoe-fitting oven to warm the thermoplastic panels in the shoe upper around the heel and instep so they become pliable and can be molded to the foot while warm. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
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Vacuum bags go on the feet once placed in the shoes warm out of the oven. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
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Pulling the vacuum tightens the bag down around the shoe and forces its heat-moldable panels to conform to the foot. The panels are made of a material used in women’s pumps—an application requiring considerable performance from a shoe designed intentionally not to look like performance footwear. But without having much shoe there, a fashion pump has to control the heel while it teeters on a tall spike, so a stiff-snug-fitting heel cup is a must. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com
Inside
The insole of the XC70 (as well as the XC90 and XC60), features different sizes of medial arch pads that slip in between the upper and lower layers of the insole. Photo: Lennard Zinn | VeloNews.com

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