Video: Pick the Right Rock Climbing Shoes

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Learn what types of shoes are best for rock climbing and how to choose the right rock climbing shoes in this free instructional outdoors video.

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Feb 26, 2011
Securing mechanisms, such as velcro, laces, or elastic are hardly the most important characteristics that differentiate rock climbing shoes. Characteristics such as midsole thickness/stiffness, last, construction, volume, toe profile, and camber type are of more importance when selecting shoes. Experts on these shoe characteristics are usually found at reputable retail stores that specialize in rock climbing equipment.
estin1 Aug 02, 2008
This is a great video for letting you know about the correct climbing shoes. Justus really knows what he is talking about!!
estin1 Aug 02, 2008
This is a great video for letting you know about the correct climbing shoes. Justus really knows what he is talking about!!

Video Transcript

So we're going to go over some shoes you might want for rock climbing. These are all technical shoes over here. But you've got these which are called approach shoes which you're not going to use for the technical rock climbing. But they're good if the approach, the hike up to the climb is steep or slick. Often these will actually have sticky rubber like the rest of the shoes we're going to go over and they're basically just light hiking shoes you can use to just get where you're going more safely. So in the climbing world, there's three basic types of shoes. The first one here is lace up shoes. Now with any climbing shoe, you've got the sole of the shoe is with sticky rubber which is rubber that's been formulated to have a higher friction coefficient on the rock. Which basically means, it's going to stick to rock better than your average shoe sole. So the thing with the lace ups is that when you put your foot in, you can dial up the fit. You can dial in the fit. You can tie them as tight or as loose as you want and in general with climbing shoes, you want them tighter than any other shoe you're ever going to wear. You want to think of them like a second skin. So if you're just starting out, lace up shoes are a good idea. Because even if you get them too big the first time, you can always lace them up tighter and they'll work in the long run. Now we can move over to a kind of a step up in performance often is the Velcro shoe. For those of us too lazy to untie our shoes after every climb, these are a great compromise. Often they're a lot more aggressive. Which means they're turned in. When you put your toe in the shoe, it's going to curl up in there and you're going to be able to toe down on rock a lot better. You're going to be able to, it gives you a much more concentrated power point to stand on the rock. Same with the lace up shoes, the Velcro shoes can be tightened or loosened. Not quite as customizable, but often you get them tight enough that you almost don't need to Velcro them at all anyway. Now often the ultimate in performance is the slipper. People get these so tight that it's extremely difficult to get them on your foot. The nice thing about these is there's no tying. There's nothing to come undone. Once they're on, they're on. So these are just like the other ones. They're often very aggressive. Some shoes you'll see with actually come out of the box like this and you can imagine what that does to your foot. But it's great for performance and these are great shoes. I'll often use them for indoor climbing or for bouldering, which is lower climbing without a rope. All these shoes will work. If you are just starting out though, I do just recommend the lace up shoes because in the long run, those are going to be the easiest and the most versatile.

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Pick the Right Rock Climbing Shoes

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