Buying Climbing Shoes
As I’ve been climbing around a year now and experienced many of my friends learning how to climb and facing the seemingly daunting task of discovering what gear they do and don’t need, I figured I should relay my discoveries.
The most used thing you will purchase when rock climbing is your shoes. You should spend some time figuring out what kind of shoes you want. If you go to a place that has rentals and you are using the rentals day in day out for more then a month, you are hurting your progress as a climber. Rental shoes are generally cheap rubber with horrible heels and even worse toes. Anything over a V3 you are really going to have some trouble with as you won’t be able to toe-in on an small foot hold or smear nearly as well as a person with their own climbing shoes.
The things to consider when getting a pair of shoes will vary based on who you talk to. If you are talking to a serious climber they are going to recommend you get “aggressive” shoes. What they are referring to is how much of an angle the toe of the shoe is set at. Rather then having a flat shoe you will have one with a very large arch. They may also tell you to consider a solid ankle so that your heel hooks don’t slip. Most people who are bouldering and doing sport climbing will have some rather aggressive shoes that allow them to make some rather tight moves on small foot holds. They will also tell you to get at least a half size to a size and a half smaller then your regular shoes. This is to make sure your foot doesn’t slip out of your shoe at any point and give you better feeling as to how well you are toed in on things.
Now if you are just getting started and are not serious enough to consider a nice painful shoe a necessity yet, I don’t blame you. When I heard the way these guys were talking I thought they were nuts. Then 5 months later I was shelling out for my pair of La Sportiva Vipers, which I got so small that I could only wear for about 15 minutes at a time. The only reason I wore them for 15 minutes was because it took me 5 minutes of anguish to put them on. After a few weeks of breaking them in I can wear them for about an hour before my feet need a break, but I love them. There is a world of difference between the Mad Rock Flash, I started off with and the Vipers I wear now.
I’m here to tell you that the difference between the Flash and the Vipers is massive. The Vipers have much higher quality rubber, heels and toes. The shoe’s design is far superior in my opinion and of course the price is about twice as much as my starter shoes so, you would hope things would be better. If I was starting out would I still get the Flash? Probably and the reason is because I wasn’t ready to feel the pain. I needed to fall madly in love with climbing before I was willing to put myself through the pain of a pair of performance shoes.
So for those looking for starter shoes find some shoes you like and don’t kill your feet, if you know other climbers see if they have some already broken in shoes that you can buy off them for cheap. Someone’s used shoes will be way better then the rentals and they are already broken in. Breaking in shoes sucks, it hurts but once they are broken in the pain is worth it. So why not skip the pain if you can. Also if you can get them used from a buddy, after a few months when you are ready to feel the pain of a new pair of good shoes you won’t feel you need to go on the cheap.
At the store:
Now hopefully you are to the point where you are all about climbing and are really wondering how a shoe should fit you. There are a few things to consider. One size does not fit all. As you try different brands your foot will fit in them differently. Heck even withing the same brand your foot will fit differently depending on the model. This will result in a big pain as you now have a ton of shoes to try on and probably won’t be able to try them out too much. Most gyms will let you do a route or two in them but then again they may not. I quickly discovered I love the La Sportiva ankle, which made my decision easier.
How should your foot fit? Well the guideline I use is that your toes should be squished up a bit. You should be able to feel the knuckles of your toes pressing up against the top of the shoe as they are now flexed like little caterpillars. Now remember I like the performance shoes. If you are looking for comfy shoes to climb for long periods of time in you probably want more padding and a little bit more space for your toes, though not too much. You will want to be able to feel those small toe holds. It’s a fine line and in the end it’s up to you. It’s less a science and more a preference.
Price Range? Well assuming you can’t find a friend who has some cheap shoes for yah, then you are probably going to want to get something semi-comfy and on the cheap. If you are buying your shoes from a gym you will probably spend around 50-90 bones for the non-performance shoes. If you are buying aggressive shoes with nice rubber and heels odds are you are spending 100 - 200. There are some online outlet stores that will have limited sizes and quantities of previous models of shoes. Though you won’t get to try them on unless you can find someone who still has the old ones in stock. Here you can generally find high end shoes for 30-50 bucks though it will be a gamble as, one size does not fit all.
Types of Shoe: There are slip ons, velcro and lace ups for your standard climbing shoe. I have become a big fan of slip ons as they are generally pretty easy to get on and off and break in pretty nice. Lace ups take awhile to put on and can be a pain if you are constantly taking your shoes on and off. Velcro are a nice in between as they are quick to take on and off and break in fairly well.
Type of Material: One big aspect to pay attention to is what your shoe is made of. If it is all synthetic odds are it isn’t going to stretch too much as you break the shoe in which means it will fit pretty close to the same as when you first bought the shoe. Leather will have a tendency to stretch so if you want a tight fit all the time you might need to get a half size smaller.
Places to buy: I recommend a rock gym where you can try the shoes out a bit and make sure they are not going to cause you some buyers remorse. If you are in Scottsdale or Tempe I know Scott has a shop in ClimbMax (Tempe) and AZ On The Rocks(North Scottsdale). Talking with Scott or any serious climber is recommended but understand you are going to get a bias from most climbers and it is important you get what you like. If money is your main concern, online outlets are the place to go but you are going to take a gamble. REI also sells climbing shoes but they have about 1/20th of what Scott has at AZR and you are going to pay about the same price without the knowledge or the ability to try your shoes out.
Shoes I recommend:
Starters:
Mad Rock Flash
La Sportiva Katana
Aggressive:
La Sportiva Vipers
La Sportiva Cobras
5.10 Dragons
I hope you found this informative, please let me know if you have any questions.
Tags: Climbing Gear, Climbing Shoes