7 Mistakes I Made Buying Climbing Shoes

I'm Josh and I'm Blake. We both are climbers and these are our climbing shoes. How many pairs of shoes do you think you've gone through? I've gone through about four pairs. Before these Squamas, I had the La Sportiva Solutions and then the Theories. Nice, and these have to be like my sixth, seventh, maybe even eighth pair of shoes. And during our process of purchasing new shoes, both of us have made a few mistakes. So this video is seven mistakes that we have made when purchasing new climbing shoes. And the first mistake is buying a pair of shoes that are too small. When you are first starting to climb, you might go on a Reddit or you might hear some rumors and a lot of people are saying you got to downsize, like a whole size, two sizes, maybe even three sizes. Some of the early pairs of shoes that I purchased, I downsized a whole two sizes and they hurt super bad. They fit, well, super snug. They were super uncomfy, but it kind of made me not want to climb as much and they hurt my feet. They gave me toe knuckle calluses. You got toe knuckle calluses? I do not. That's because I downsized my shoes too much. The second mistake that I made as a climber purchasing new climbing shoes is buying a pair of shoes that are too big. You had that experience before? I have not had that issue, but I didn't downsize from the beginning. So if anything, mine might have actually been too big. Yeah, exactly. And especially when I was first purchasing my pair of shoes as a brand new climber, I wanted something that was comfy or something that resembled my normal tennis shoes. So I went to the local pro shop, tried on some shoes and probably picked out something that was too big, something that resembled my normal street shoe size. I didn't downsize at all. And when I was climbing on the wall, I realized that those shoes expanded a little bit as I was breaking them in and it just wasn't great for smearing. It wasn't great for toe hooking because there was a lot of room in the heel. So we don't want shoes that are too big or too small. How do you like your shoes to fit? I like my shoes pretty snug. Before these squamous, when I said earlier that I hadn't done much research, what was a better shoe for a wider foot? I noticed that the sides of my shoes were getting torn up pretty quickly and then also in the middle of the night, just sometimes when I would wake up or walk around after sitting for a while, my feet would ache. And I think that was directly due to my shoes not fitting properly. So obviously I want them snug, but not too snug where my feet hurt. So I feel like these are good happy middle where they feel good, they fit well, but then they're not aching my feet. Then these are also my first shoes that I downsized and I only went down half a size, but I feel like I could even go down more, which I think goes to show that this shoe is better shaped for my foot. So even with it out, with even being downsized and feeling like it doesn't hurt and I could go down more, I think that goes to show that this is a good shoe that fits my foot well. Yeah, when you're purchasing a new pair of shoes, it's really important to research them a little bit. And one of the common questions that I like to ask is how much are they going to stretch out during the break-in process? Because when you're trying on a pair of shoes, they should be a little bit more snug than you like, of course, depending on the shoes because these particular ones, these are Evolves, they stretched out a decent amount. I would say a full half size. And so when I was trying them on, there was this process that is, well, really painful, the break-in process. And it's going to take about five, maybe six climbing sessions to really break them in. And a lot of modern style climbing shoes have this neoprene or some kind of stretchy insole that's supposed to morph around your foot so that when you do break it in, it just fits like a sock, like a glorified sock, climbing sock. And it does actually become very comfy. Like you had said, very snug, not quite painful, but it might be a little bit uncomfortable. So keep that in mind as well. That's just what a good fitting climbing shoe is going to feel like. And one of the perks of having shoes like these is you can just pull them off really easily and very quickly, very conveniently in between climbs and then throw them back on when you're ready to climb again. Tell me about one of the mistakes that you made. I would say one of my mistakes was I stayed in a non-aggressive shoe probably too long. So I stayed in the non-aggressive shoe and I was going higher up in grades needing a shoe that's better for some skills like toe hooking and heel hooking. And I stayed in the non-aggressive shoe. So I think there's a fine line of when to go into an aggressive shoe and I wish I could go back and get into an aggressive shoe sooner. Yeah, exactly. Well, when you're first starting climbing, the mistake you might make is purchasing an aggressive shoe immediately and the other mistake that you pointed out is not getting into an aggressive shoe soon enough. Because when you're first starting to climb, you're learning the basics of how to smear on the wall, how to use your toes. And as you're going into more of an intermediate climber, you might start to use your heels a little bit more. You might start to grab some toe hooks. And when you're using more of a neutral pair of shoes, so show them your shoes. This is pretty aggressive. This little arc here, it's an indicator of how aggressive a shoe is. A more neutral shoe will just have a flat sole. And when you're first starting climbing, a perfect shoe is that flat neutral sole. But then as you're starting to use those toe hooks, you're going to want some rubber on the top and you're going to want more of an aggressive shoe that can get you into some more difficult angles. Now, you had mentioned that you perhaps have wide feet. Tell me about that. I have wider feet. And so one of my mistakes was not researching enough what shoe is better for wider feet. So when I started, that caused a lot of the shoes to wear sooner, kind of on the edge where my foot is wider. So after going through the theories and the solutions a couple times, I did some more research and found out that the Squamas are a better shoe for a wider foot. So if you do have a wider foot, I would recommend researching that because you don't want your shoe to blow out on the side after only a couple months of climbing. Yeah, and the next mistake that is pretty similar to that is the toe box. So you might notice that these shoes have this shaped toe box and these shoes have this shaped toe box. And there are many, many different types of shapes. Some would call it a symmetrical toe box. Some would call it an asymmetrical toe box. And a simple way to figure out what's going to fit you best is just looking at your feet. And your feet, your toes, the shape of that should somewhat resemble the toe box of some shoes. If there was more of a point on these further to your right, then that's how your feet should resemble as well. And so that's something that you should take note of, especially if you're not able to try on shoes ahead of time. We have, you know, a fairly mediocre pro shop near us, and we can try on some shoes, but there are many, many other shoe brands out there. Money. Yeah. So, you want to go on this one? Yeah. So, another thing to note is, obviously, shoes can come from a wide range of prices. So, as a beginner climber, there's no need to go out and spend 200 bucks, even more. A good shoe, you can get probably starting shoes around 100 bucks, maybe a little more. Then as you get into climbing more and realize it's something you want to do and getting better at, you can start going up in price. I would say my first shoe, I think, was the Black Diamond Momentums. Not aggressive, just good beginner shoe. I think it's just over 100 bucks, whereas now I have the Squamas, which are 200. So, obviously, as you get into climbing more, kind of makes sense to go up in price, but there's no need to start with an expensive shoe. Yeah, my first pair of shoes were $200, and I did not need a $200 pair of shoes. Number one, I tore them up super quick, because sometimes expensive shoes have a very thin rubber because you're relying that that climber is going to have some very precise footwork. My footwork, even now, is not great, but especially as a new climber, I was marking up the walls with the side of my shoe, my toes, and I developed a bunch of holes in them within just a month or two. So, I would recommend finding a more beginner-friendly shoe, maybe in that $80 to $100 price range. We have a video that I'll show up there of a great beginner shoe option. A lot of those beginner shoes have a much thicker rubber because they know that some beginners are going to have some pretty imprecise footwork and be marring up those shoes quite a bit. And I wish that I would have purchased a much cheaper pair of shoes because likely it would have lasted me longer or I could have just bought another pair if I destroyed those shoes. The last mistake that I made as a climber was staying in rental shoes for too long. I think rental shoes are super awesome for brand new climbers getting into it. They just get to experience what it feels like to be on the walls for a little bit. But if you stay in them for too long, it can teach some really bad habits because, well, most rental shoes are pretty clunky. They resemble boat shoes more than climbing shoes. And they're, again, great for beginners because you can just get onto the wall, which is the biggest mistake most people make is just not even trying climbing. But that allows a lot of people to just try it. Hey, thanks for watching. Don't forget to drop a like and subscribe and let us know what some of the mistakes you made when purchasing new climbing shoes are. I'm sure the people in the comment section would love to see that. Peace.