Thoughts on Precision vs. Comfort

[glen]

Sizing your rock climbing shoes: tight or comfy?

 

Okay, so this is a topic which has been hashed out by everyone at some point, and most people seem to come up with a different set of standards. Obviously it will depend on the type of climbing, how long the shoes are to be worm, experience level of climber and and any number of other hyper-detail-oriented specifics (like heel fit for overhang specific shoes). Obviously sport shoes and slippers should be pretty tight and that all-day shoes should be more to the comfortable side, but never overtly sloppy.

 

The question comes into the details... on slippers what is too tight vs. not tight enough and what are the indicators you use? What about for board lasted shoes?

 

I generally try to size them so that the seams leave imprints, are on the tight side of snug, but not painful or making my toes curl to the point that they can't be moved. This seems to offer a good combination of dexterity, sensitivity and allows me to keep them on my feet long enough to lace them up. For board lasted shoes, I go maybe a half size up. This allows no slop, but is comfortable. I figure the last is doing the edge work, and havn't noticed any significant improvement when going tighter. Of course, I also don't throw down super-hard stuff either.

 

There's a joke in here about boxers vs briefs, but the sportos probably wouldn't like it

Discuss.

[lummox]

the fuckin shoes just need to be THERE. not tight, not loose. unless your a fucking idiot in which case get them tight nough to leave marks on yer feet. ha

if n you thin you climb better when yur in pain you got child abuse issues or supin.

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

This question has been slowly rendered more and more obsolete as shoe companies use shaped, precision fit designs that maximize your foot's strength and hug your feet, allowing a high degree of performance with a minimum of foot mangling. DFA has been very pleased with all the La Sportiva shoes cut on the Miura last (the Miuras, the Mistrals - R.I.P. , and the Cobras). They're comfy enough to leave on for an hour or so at a time for bouldering (more so the velcros and slippers; the lace ups are a bit stiffer and so slightly less comf' for the long term), yet also climb like little hot rods for those tough sends. Perhaps if you're trying to climb 5.14, you might need to fit 'em a little more cripplingly-tight so you can stand on shadows and obscure invisibilities, but for most of us mortals, a snug fitting performance shoe will be more than adequate. Best of both worlds. All of the Doctor's shoes are the same size, which works out just fine.

[Dru]

i wear 2-sizes tighter shoes sometimes and only climb up to 10d/11a on good days

 

on the other hand mr. A. Cairns wears rock shoes the same size as his street shoes, with 2 pairs wooly socks, and climbs 5.12

 

and sharma onsights 13a in flip flops

 

conclusion rock shoe sizing has minimal to do with how hard you climb

[ctuller]

sharma onsights 13a in flip flops

sick

[Dr_Flash_Amazing]

Dru said:

i wear 2-sizes tighter shoes sometimes and only climb up to 10d/11a on good days

 

on the other hand mr. A. Cairns wears rock shoes the same size as his street shoes, with 2 pairs wooly socks, and climbs 5.12

 

and sharma onsights 13a in flip flops

 

conclusion rock shoe sizing has minimal to do with how hard you climb

 

Lousy conclusion. If Mr. A. Stackorocks put on some shooz that actually fit, he'd probably climb fuck harder than 5.12. Plus C. Sharm' is a mutant and there is just no explaining his superbadassfunktronicdiscodestroyer powers using modern tools and technology.

[erik]

i climb in the upper 4th class and hate painful shoes. it just doesnt make sense. i mean i would like to walk later in life too!!

 

cobras do rock!

 

 

[texplorer]

Try Susan sommers new Phalange-Flex 2010 and build up your sausages. Then you can totally cut your feet free ending your shoes sizing woes.

[allthumbs]

I have no idea how you can function with "too tight" shoes. With wide feet like mine it's all too painful.

[kitten]

erik said:

i climb in the upper 4th class and hate painful shoes. it just doesnt make sense. i mean i would like to walk later in life too!!

 

cobras do rock!

I agree with Erik.

Buy shoes that are more comfortable because you will hate them by the end of the first day.

And hating a pair of expensive shoes is no good.

Beware of getting all leather because they tend to stretch. It is also nice to wear liner socks on the colder days, or if you don't want your feet to be blue or red from the dye. Sandal season is on the way

[Szyjakowski]

kitten said:

Sandal season is on the way

sandal season never ends.....

[Cairns]

glen said:

Sizing your rock climbing shoes: tight or comfy?

 

Both, please. For me, the key thing in shoes is having laces. I will never forget the day in Oklahoma City, in an empty lot turning over boards looking for horny toads, snakes, black widows, and scorpions, when my shoelaces came undone and I retied them myself, then ran all the way home to tell my parents I could tie my own shoelaces (approx 1954). The meditative process of cinching down the toes and snugging up the arch and especially tying the knot and dealing with the loose ends is a sort of gate through which I pass before a climb, leaving the mundane and trivial behind, smoothing any unhelpful wrinkles in my gray matter, and tapping into the profound energy of ascent. If a lace pops, I square knot the break and carry through. At the end of the process I'm calm and ready to go. Shoes are pretty much the only climbing technology I feel fully comfortable and familiar with.

 

 

I shouldn't be a part of any train of logic but I'm happy to be an exception. A better choice would be Pete Cleveland doing 5.13 in stiff-soled shoes (and socks).

 

 

I wear socks, usually just one pair, because I always have. I tried slippers when they first came out and they aren't for me.

 

I don't climb to climb hard. I climb to avoid specialization and dead ends. I have done a 13 in my thick socks, a fantastic route left of Chromatic Suspension, since downrated to 12d I think, but I got it second try.

 

 

 

[allison]

So I took my new-to-me Synchros out on a little bit of rock a few days ago. They are snug, as in my toes are crumpledf but my whole feets aren't smushed. I was a crappy climber before, and without the precision of a true slipper, and having my foot act as part of the shoe, I was skittering this way and that way, and climbing even worse than I usually do, if that is possible.

 

Ugh, I hope I get used to them. 60 feet is a long way to climb with your feet paddling all over the place.

 

On the other hand, if I have a better chance of being something less than crippled when I'm 60, it's all worth it!