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disobey_gravity2010-03-03 08:21 pm
rydra_wong) wrote in disobey_gravity2010-03-03 08:21 pm
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Let's talk about shoes, baby
Because we had to have this topic sooner or later:
Climbing shoes. What've you got, what've you had in the past, what are you eyeing up for the future?
To get the ball rolling: I've been pretty lucky with my shoes so farapart from that pair of Vipers which I got cheap in a sale but which turned out to be that half-cm too small to wear without actually breaking a toe.
I started with a pair of Evolv Elektras (purple!) which suit my foot shape, are soft and sensitive and unusually comfortable by climbing-shoe standards.
(Everything you've heard about the Evolv stink problem is true, but it can be mitigated by regular washes with soap and water, and putting those cedar shoe inserts in them between uses.)
When they started wearing through, I decided I was ready for something a bit more technical and found the La Sportiva Barracudas, which turn out to be my Platonic ideal of climbing shoes: perfectly balanced between soft/smeary and sharp/edgy, downturned but not too downturned, and lace-up so that heelhooks don't pull them off my weird narrow heels.
Then I found out they'd just been discontinued (I didn't even manage to snag a second pair as back-ups!).
When they wear through, I'm going to try getting them re-soled, but I know that doesn't always work out.
But the Barracudas were made on a modified Katana last, and I've just heard that these are going to be on the market round about April ...
Climbing shoes. What've you got, what've you had in the past, what are you eyeing up for the future?
To get the ball rolling: I've been pretty lucky with my shoes so far
I started with a pair of Evolv Elektras (purple!) which suit my foot shape, are soft and sensitive and unusually comfortable by climbing-shoe standards.
(Everything you've heard about the Evolv stink problem is true, but it can be mitigated by regular washes with soap and water, and putting those cedar shoe inserts in them between uses.)
When they started wearing through, I decided I was ready for something a bit more technical and found the La Sportiva Barracudas, which turn out to be my Platonic ideal of climbing shoes: perfectly balanced between soft/smeary and sharp/edgy, downturned but not too downturned, and lace-up so that heelhooks don't pull them off my weird narrow heels.
Then I found out they'd just been discontinued (I didn't even manage to snag a second pair as back-ups!).
When they wear through, I'm going to try getting them re-soled, but I know that doesn't always work out.
But the Barracudas were made on a modified Katana last, and I've just heard that these are going to be on the market round about April ...
no subject
That sounds like a very good rule of thumb.
(I've found that if the first time I try climbing in new shoes I'm completely convinced that I've got them a half-size too small, they'll turn out to be perfectly sized.)