shoes

[niqaeli]

I have some questions about shoes. I'm pretty sure if I go digging through the community, I can get find recommendations on an affordable initial pair of shoes because rentals are, um, disgusting and not conducive to me wanting to go climbing -- but if anyone cares to rec their favourite shoes that would be awesome.

Relatedly, though, how long do you expect an initial pair of shoes to last? I mean obviously that's going to be affected by how often you're going climbing, but ballpark estimates? Are you more likely to wear through them before needing a new pair for other reasons (ie, needing a more technical shoe, or having gone down in size)? If you're climbing outdoors rather than at a gym does that tend to make a difference in the wear? If climbing outdoors, does the type of rock you tend to climb make a difference in the wear?

These questions are brought to you by the letter M, the number 4, general curiousity, and also fic research. :P

Comments

[rydra_wong]

if anyone cares to rec their favourite shoes that would be awesome.

All recs are subject to the caveat that you have to find a shoe that fits your particular foot shape; there's a lot of individual variation, so a shoe can be wonderful and awesome and still not right for you.

That said, I started with a pair of Evolv Elektras, which worked really well for me; other people like the Evolv Defys (which are the same shoe but wider; the Elektra is the narrower "women's" model). They're unusually comfy, and very soft and sensitive -- not so good if you want to do precision edging later on, but great for being able to feel exactly where your foot is on the hold, which helps with learning good footwork.

But pretty much every climbing shoe manufacturer has a good beginner-to-intermediate shoe (or several) in their range, and they'll generally be the cheapest ones. So there are a lot of options.