Choosing a gravel shoe comes down to four decisions, in order of importance: sole stiffness versus walkability, closure system, toe and outsole protection, and fit volume. Get the first one right and the rest mostly falls into place based on how and where you actually ride.
Start with how much walking your rides actually involve. If your gravel riding is mostly fast, dry routes with the occasional short push, a stiffer sole like Distanza Carbon prioritizes power transfer and only sacrifices a little walking comfort. If your routes involve regular hike-a-bike, technical singletrack, or long stops at cafes and trailheads, a sole with more built-in flex through the forefoot, like Distanza's nylon-carbon version, will feel noticeably better off the bike without costing much on it — the difference matters more over a six-hour day than most riders expect.
Next, decide on closure. A lace-up gravel shoe, like Tensione, is lighter, simpler, and cheaper to service since there's no mechanism to eventually wear out, but tension is harder to adjust mid-ride and laces can occasionally snag on technical terrain. A dial closure, like the Twist Tech system on Cento and Sempre, lets you fine-tune tension in seconds without stopping, which matters more on longer or more variable-terrain rides where your feet swell and conditions change. Neither is objectively better — it's a genuine trade-off between simplicity and mid-ride adjustability.
Protection is the feature road shoes simply don't need and gravel shoes can't skip. Look specifically at the toe area and how far the rubber outsole wraps up the shoe: a shoe like Distanza, with a rubberized toe cap and outsole that wraps toe to heel, holds up to rock strikes and scrambling in a way a shoe borrowed from the road lineup won't. This isn't a cosmetic detail — it's the difference between a shoe that survives a season of gravel riding and one that starts separating at the toe within a few months.
Finally, fit volume matters more on gravel than on road, because gravel shoes get worn for longer stretches, often in more variable temperatures, and frequently over thicker socks in cold or wet conditions. A shoe with a roomier toe box and a slightly higher-volume last, which is how Distanza is shaped compared to a race-oriented road last, tends to suit the wider range of conditions gravel riding throws at a shoe. If you have wide or high-volume feet specifically, that consideration usually outweighs everything else on this list.
Weigh these four in the order given, not by what looks most impressive on a spec sheet: stiffness-versus-walkability decides comfort on the terrain you actually ride, closure decides how much you'll fuss with the shoe mid-ride, protection decides how long it lasts, and fit volume decides whether any of the above matters if the shoe doesn't fit right to begin with.