wide rock climbing shoes fix

[markwebster]

 

There are no wide rock climbing shoes, period. You can make your own wide climbing shoes by following these instructions.

 

Buy the shoe you want, in the brand you want, but buy it long, to get your width, and cut off the heel.

 

 

 

I've been very frustrated finding a rock shoe that fits my super wide 7 EEEEEE foot. Rock Shoe makers have abandoned climbers with wide feet. I went to REI recently to try on climbing shoes, and nothing even came close to fitting my wide foot. On a whim, I started trying longer rock shoes to try to get the width my wide foot needed. I'm a 7, 6E so I tried on a size 9...still too narrow. Finally I tried on a size 15 and the width was perfect, comfortable even. The only trouble was that there was an extra inch of shoe sticking out the back of my heel as shown in this picture. I bought the 5.10 brand because it had the least amount of reinforcing on the heel and looked easier to cut.

 

I called Dave Page Cobbler in Seattle to ask him if he would like to help me shorten the heel. Dave said that it would be a waste of his time because he'd have to have one of his guys spend half a day on the modifications, and it would only have a 50% chance of working. He basically told me to forget it and recommended mekanboot.com, who I'd already researched and tried unsuccessfully to contact (via email). In fact, 4 different shoe repair shops, cobblers and climbing shoe manufacturers either totally ignored me, or told me it was impossible.

 

I made some marks on the shoe sole with some white artist pastel chalk (conte crayon) indicating approximately where I thought the heel should start. I very carefully cut down both sides of the back spine of the shoe to the point where I thought the sole should begin to bend upward to form the heel cup. I wrapped (and overlapped) the sides around the back of my heel, then pulled the spine over that to sort of make the back of the shoe "closed". I found that I had to trim down the sides as there was more leather than I needed. I also found that the rubber reinforcing wear panels on the sides of the shoe were too thick, and not needed at all since the spine (the former bottom of the size 15 shoe) was going to cover up the overlapping sides behind my heel.

 

 

I tried to sand off the rubber heel side panel strips, but they were bulletproof. I got out a $30 torch from home depot and heated up the unneeded rubber to the point where it started to crackle and smoke (Don't try this indoors!). When the rubber is hot, you can peel it back from the leather like a banana.

 

 

This is the shoe after burning and peeling off the uneeded rubber to make stitching easier. I used aluminum foil and thin brass shim material to shield the good rubber as I heated the bad rubber.

 

 

I've folded the "wings" under the heel spine, pinched it together and secured the heel for a test wearing, using Gorilla duct tape. It turned out to be too long so I pulled off the tape, which left a messy residue (remove with WD40) and cut everything shorter by a quarter of an inch. Still too short so I cut it all down again by another quarter inch and wore it around the house.

 

 

Here I am using my leather punch. The first time I sewed these, I kept the gorilla tape on and punched and sewed at the same time. After I'd finished and realized the shoes were still too long anyway, I got smarter. I cut the stitches out with a sharp razor blade, cut the sole and side shorter again, and carefully marked out new (shorter) hole locations on the wings that matched the existing holes along the heel spine. You can see this in the next photo.

 

 

the second shoe...I'm getting more efficient.

 

 

Hand sewing the heel together with thick waxed thread from a shoe repair shop

 

 

These are the finished shoes. Note the heel on the left has a more aggressive curve inward at the top. Both heel shapes work, but the more relaxed heel on the right shoe allowed my heel to slip upward a tad, so I changed the curve on the second shoe. Because I have those long wings inside, I can always let them out if the heel starts to rub.

For more pictures and details, click the picture below. Modifying these climbing shoes took me two days, and I wanted to have a clear record as I'll have to make another pair in a couple years.

 

 

[TrogdortheBurninator]

awesome diy!

[olyclimber]

Wow Mark..thats impressive. Thanks!