How much has cycling shoes & pedal straps helped riders here? They sure help me alot. The increase in the force I'm able to pedal with goes waay up when use these ^.
For me (and most cyclists really) there are two types of shoes that are useful (if you use platform pedals):
1. Shoes with stiff soles
2. Shoes that wrap around your foot well with a lighter very sticky sole.
One gives you more response, the other gives you better pedal feel.
I have tried and loved both. Would go either way if/when I hop on a fixed again.
Don't downplay shoes that specifcally state that they have a plastic insert for extra stiffness. It makes a real, very noticeable difference.
The worst are shoes with thick soles that aren't stiff. Ugh. Worst of both worlds. No response, and no "pedal feel".
Like driving a small nail with a rubber sledgehammer.
This changes for BMX/MTB though, as you want more cushion for the pushin' when you land from things or just when you are pumping. You are also moving around a lot on the pedals. For those bikes though, a stiff sole is still preferable over a thick one, but you wont see a lot of people riding bmx/mtb on anything less than a well built skate shoe (except for trey jones lmao).
I sort of naturally came across shoes that worked really well for me in the above categories for riding fixed/ss gravel/cx.
I found that most other people that ride/rode fixed/ss or platform pedals came to the same conclusions. That was kind of fun to realize.
I never understood the "pull up on the strap" for extra propulsion thing. I only used one strap on my "pulling" foot when I rode fixed.
I mean, some people really just don't care. But I've noticed that my overall experience is just better and I feel better riding my bike when I use those kinds of shoes.