disobey_gravity | Entries tagged with shoes

Ever since I started climbing, I've used 5.10 Spire shoes - they're fully laced and so suit my wonky feet. From time to time, I've tried to find other shoes, but to no avail.

Anyhow, I've finally worn holes in the current pair, and went online to buy a new pair, to discover that 5.10 have discontinued them. Woe!

I gather the Anasazi Guide is in some sense the descentant of the Spire, but no-where in town sells them. I may yet get a pair online and expect to return them if they don't fit (but that's expensive and faffsome). So after a rather frustrating lunchtime, I now have a pair of La Sportiva Tarantulaces by the advanced selection criteria of "only pair that will actually go on my feet"; I'll find out tomorrow if I can actually climb in them...

rydra_wong

To break in super-tight new shoes faster:

Put your shoes in a plastic bag, closed as tightly as you can. Wrap it in towels soaked in boiling water. After about 5 minutes, the rubber will be warm and pliable enough to get the shoes on with minimal agony.

Put them on and wear them round the house for a while (some people recommend skipping or jumping up and down in them, but that seems unduly masochistic) while they mould to your feet.

Repeated as needed.

(Sharing because I just learned about this trick and have been using it today, with great success. Only traces of water got on the shoes, so looks like you don't have to worry about damaging the leather.)

truelove

Actually, more, lack thereof?

How actually batshit would it be, to climb barefoot at an indoor gym? I basically prefer to do everything barefoot whenever possible -- especially anything that requires precision balance. (Legacy of my primary athletic background being gymnastics, followed up by a smattering of martial arts as an adult. I've always *been* barefoot when doing athletics.)

I mean, I'm not particularly worried about hygiene, considering my bare hands are going on those same holds and frankly my own feet are probably cleaner than most people's shoe soles, just... wondering if there are compelling reasons why it's a terrible idea?

aella_irene

So, I am having some problems with shoes: I bought a pair at Christmas, and since then my climbing has become rather worse: despite the fact that I bought the same model as I had been renting, in the same size, I end up with swiftly cramping feet, occasional agonising pain, and an inability to balance on anything smaller than a mouse.

I am at my wit's end: when I went to my local climbing shop, they generally concluded that I have weird feet, and suggested a) new shoes and b) a course on footwork. The new shoes would be financially impractical, and the course in footwork seems unlikely to help, as I can no longer do footwork that I could do before. Climbing has stopped being fun, and started being painful.

Does anyone have any advice? Recs of possible solutions?

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

sixbeforelunch

Hey all! So, I've been really wanting to get back into climbing lately. (I even bought a climbing magazine today for inspiration. Cute dude who rang me out at Barnes & Nobel was totally into it and wanted to chat climbing, but alas I was late getting back from my lunch break already, and there was a long line behind me that probably wouldn't have been into our climbing chat.) Two quick questions/pleas for advice.

1) So, I own climbing shoes, chalk, and tape, but they've been stored in a nylon bag without seeing the outside world for...over a year or more, I'd guess. I don't know that the bag breathes very well. I'm almost afraid to open the bag and peek at them. Any tips on sanitizing/deodorizing a pair of climbing shoes? And, if the chalk seems okay, do you think it'll be okay to use? I'm just wondering if it can go bad. (I don't see how, but my anxiety disorder likes to find the worst case scenario in everything.)

2) One of the biggest barriers to my getting back into climbing has been fear of not being able to go often enough to make noticeable progress. Opinions on the fewest number of times per week/month that you can go and still make some sort of progress?

tea

After getting a whole bunch of great shoe advice here a couple of weeks ago, and now that I've actually used my new shiny shoes a couple of times, I thought I'd post about how it went.

I went to MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op - I have too much love for MEC to go into here. Great staff, great ethics, v. Canadian, great products.) and found their climbing shoes and with the help of a very awesome salesguy (I can't remember his name, let's call him Tim), tried on maybe ten pairs. I started with the La Sportiva Nago Rock Shoes in a 39.5, and wow, they were comfortable. Too comfortable!

I also tried on some velcro Evolvs, Five Tens, and Scarpas, some of which I could get my feet into, some of which I couldn't. I found the things that bothered me were either in how the velcro pulled across my arches, or in how high the heel box rose up (some of them - the Five Tens especially, just cut too high on my ankle). So I kept coming 'round to the Nagos. I tried on the mens version 36.5s (too big), and the women's 36.5 (too small - I could get my feet into them, but... yeah, too small), and ended up with the women's 37.5s. Juuuuust right. They crunched my toes enough to make them stronger, but not so much that they hurt constantly. The laces mean they take a bit longer to get in and out of, but also that I can tighten them as they stretch, and adjust the pull on the pressure points on my feet.

The other excellent thing about MEC is they have a climbing wall in the middle of the store, so I would just bring the shoes there, try them on, then boulder around and test out the edges and toes to see if they were too loose. This was great because I think I didn't realize the effects of shoes that are too big until really comparing them on the wall and feeling how much easier it was to step onto small holds with tighter shoes.

After using them a couple of times, I think they're going to work out great. I can feel how much easier climbing is with shoes that fit right (and no socks). They hurt a bit the first time, especially on the outer side of one of my arches, but I found if I arched my foot a little more there wasn't a problem, and the second time out they didn't pinch anywhere in particular. All in all, I'm pretty thrilled with them - we'll see how long until I wear them out!

fadeaccompli

I finally bought my very first pair of rock climbing shoes: Evolv Defy VTR shoes in black. The website claims that they're good for beginner and expert alike, which seems a touch overly optimistic, but they do seem like good solid shoes for a beginner like me.

Now, wearing them barefoot makes for a much better fit all around. But I'm rapidly being reminded of why people usually wear socks with shoes: sweat. Lots of it. And there's not really anywhere for it to go but into the shoe. So... is there some standard or approved practice for cleaning climbing shoes out periodically, so that they don't just build up an eternal funk? I saw the staff at the gym using a spray on the insides of the rental shoes, but I'm not sure what most people do to keep their shoes in good, reasonably non-smelly shape.

nanila

Rock + Run (UK-based company) is having a sale this bank holiday weekend. Behind the cut are coupon codes for rock shoes and camming devices.

( Scarpa, Evolv, 5.10, Wild Country Tech Friends )

rydra_wong

Rockworks have some interesting shoes in their clearance section at the moment.

This is one of the few places in the UK that I've seen Acopa shoes (which I've heard very interesting things about -- this is the company that was run by the late John Bachar). I would be snapping up a pair of B3s in a heartbeat if they had them in a size that might work for me.

jest

In case any of you UK folks are interested... Rock&Run is having a clearance sale on rock shoes. If you ever wanted to pick up a spare pair of Scarpas, now is the time.

jumpuphigh

I thought I'd open up a post for people to talk about their shoes. What are you wearing to climb? Why? What do you like about them? What do you hate about them? Would you buy them again if you were buying new shoes?

I'll start. I wear Saltic Falco shoes.

I love them. They have a wide toe box and a very narrow heel and they fit my feet like they were designed just for me. Most shoes out there are just too big in the heel for me.

This model is very technical. The arch on them is insane. When I first tried them on, I believe my exact words were "They hurt so good!" I actually love everything about them. If I ever had a bad resoling experience, these would be the shoes that I would buy to replace mine.

They are made by a Czech company and extremely hard to find in the US. I would love to be able to try on all of the Saltic styles to find a more casual shoe because sometimes, I just don't want or need something this technical.

rydra_wong

Following up on this post, I can report that the Shoe Goo does in fact do what it says on the tube; it's done a fine job of fixing the peeling rubber on one of my shoes (there's one bit I need to touch up again, but apart from that it's great).

So hopefully I can avoid having to have them resoled or replaced for a while longer.

Handy tip: a cheap eyeliner brush is perfect for painting the goo into cracks. Cheap because you'll need to bin it once you've finished.

Warning: this stuff is strong. Even with a window open, I had a headache after I finished. Good ventilation is clearly essential.

rydra_wong

Does anyone have experience using Shoe Goo to fix peeling rubber on climbing shoes? Does it actually do what it says on the ~~tin~~ tube?

One of my shoes is starting to delaminate a tiny bit at the toe, and I'd like to slow it down.

(My shoes always wear through at the left toe first. I need to figure out what this says about my footwork.)

rydra_wong

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 far ~~apart 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 ...

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Disobey Gravity

Entries tagged with shoes

5.10 are bad

Hot tip

so... shoes

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shoes

getting back into it: two questions

Shoe post!

New Shoes & Shoe Questions

Gear sale alert

Interesting shoes, cheap (UK)

Rock Shoes!

Shoes, Shoes and more Shoes

Shoe Goo update

Shoe Goo?

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