This Is Going To Change Climbing FOREVER...

These are my normal climbing shoes. These are my normal climbing shoes, but with the world's softest rubber. That is incredible. As many of you know, I've been climbing for a very long time, about 27 years to be exact. But in all that time, I've never seen anything like this. A few weeks ago, this new climbing shoe rubber started going super viral all over social media, and I just knew I had to order some and try it out for myself. Okay, I'm very excited to test this out. So this is the Rathom rubber. This is not a sponsored video in any way. So I'm able to say whatever I want. They sent me the rubber for free though. I should disclose that. We're gonna test it out on a lot of different things. I do think it's probably gonna be very good at smearing. So volumes and a lot of that modern climbing. On edges, I'm not sure, but we're going to try everything. We're going to try to be as scientific as possible. That is a big difference. That is incredible. Is it just hype or does it actually work? Plan now is to go to a resole place in Oslo. They're gonna put this rubber on my Drago shoes. Hello? Magnus, nice to meet you. Have you ever worked with the rubber before? The Rathom rubber? No, actually no. It's the first time actually. You just cut it off from tires or something? Yeah, they cut it out from motorcycle tires, old retired racing tires. That sound it makes is pretty satisfying to be honest. So these are my normal Drago shoes with the Vibram rubber. I mean, Dragos are known for being super soft, but not even close to sticking together. But these shoes, so this video is not sponsored anyway and I'm very open to this just being a hype and maybe not working at all because my worry is that it's going to be too soft so it's just going to roll off all the holds. We'll see though. First I'm just going to warm up. I haven't tried these since I resold them so this is my first impression. It feels really good so far. Okay now The tiny edge. It actually feels sticky, but it's too early to say though because that's only like a yellow tag. So pretty easy. I should try something harder. I'm gonna do a small test before we're actually gonna do the main test at the end. But uh, this is a pretty perfect surface. So this is the normal rubber. Yeah, that doesn't work. This is the ratim rubber. That's a pretty big difference. So it is way stickier on smears like that. Wow, this is impressive. How are they still... Wow! Okay, so the ratim rubber is still hanging on. Oh, there we go. That was not super scientific. Of course, there's no weight in the shoe, so when you actually put weight on it, and I'm going to do that later, then we're going to get some real answers. I fell, but it was not my shoes. It might be placebo, but it definitely felt like my shoes stuck really well to that volume. I mean, I'm being dead-ass honest now. The rubber feels super sticky for this type of climbing. So far I'm pretty sold to be honest. The thing is I feel like if I sound too excited about this it sounds like an ad. I promise you guys this is not an ad. It makes so much sense to have a pair of this rubber especially for those people doing competitions. The question though is if they're going to allow it in competitions. Another probably downside of these shoes or this rubber when something is as soft as this I think it's going to wear out very quickly. There's also a very hard slab of the week this week. I only saw four people on the list. I don't think I've ever seen only four people on the list. So that is going to be fun to test later too. Let's try another one I guess. It would be good to try something steep. You know we have to like do a lot of toe hooks. Was that a foot slip? I think it might have been a foot slip. But I mean in a roof like this I felt really good. Also the the toe hook felt really good. And my theory is that when it's softer, the rubber underneath, it's going to be easier to bend the toe like that. I jinxed it and my toe hook slipped. Thing is, you never know either, like, this could be placebo, you know, like, I don't know. It's just interesting that they invented something new and I kind of want it to work. Because this could like change climbing, I think. Question is, would it be banned outside? Because I think it would leave a lot of marks on the rock. It almost feels like cheating though. For certain boulders for sure like I'd be so curious to give this to world cup climbers and see what they think of this. So easy when I actually do it right. So we're gonna start with the dual tex which is a very unusual hold but I'm gonna start with the rental shoes and see how much pressure I can put. Around 23 kilos. It feels like so slick that I don't think the other shoes will perform any better really. Right now it's a normal Vibram rubber. So it's around 25 kilos. So not really much of a difference. Maybe on dual tex everything is so slippery anyways that it doesn't really matter. Okay so now is the viral rubber. Yeah that was, I think that was a lot more. That was like 33 or something. I think that was like 40 kilos or something. It feels really sticky on this. It almost feels like I can pull my whole weight. That is, that is a big difference. Now I'm gonna try barefoot though. That might be even better. Oh yeah, I think actually barefoot is gonna be the best. Easily like 45, 50 kilos. So in dual tex, I would say barefoot is best. Then the Rattam rubber, then the normal rubber, and then the beginner climbing shoe. In competitions though, you're not allowed to take your shoes off. So if you need to keep your shoes on, on dual tex, I would say the Rattam rubber wins. Okay, so the next hold is just gonna be this. I would say around 35 kilos, maybe. I'm gonna try the normal rubber. And I felt like it was maybe a 10% increase from the rental shoes or something. And now the viral rubber. I mean, I can put my whole weight on this. That is incredible. Like I'm actually standing on it. It won't slip. It's more about like flexibility and balance. It honestly feels like it's glued on. I mean, I did expect it to do. Better but this is a lot better. I actually need to go back to that one just to kind of feel that again because it's almost like part of me thinks that I maybe tried harder with the Rattam rubber. It definitely definitely feels less. Okay I guess I gotta try barefoot on this as well. It had no chance. Okay so now the last test. This is a tiny little edge. You see that the edge has this little bump, so that's like a really like one that you really have to put a lot of pressure on. It's like 42 kilos or something. I don't know why I wanted to reach for my chalk, but there's no point of chalking up. Yeah, that was good. I could almost put, I think that was close to my full body weight. Okay, now the Vibram rubber. I don't know. Honestly, it felt pretty similar, but I still think that the normal rubber won that one. I guess I have to try this one barefoot too, but that's gonna hurt a lot. I have actually tried this. I probably spent 10 attempts already trying it. To be honest, I haven't even felt close. That was a slip. I actually didn't expect my foot to slip on that. One theory I have is that when you have to put a lot of pressure on the foot, like I have to on this foothold, the sole of the shoe is going to bend more. So it's going to have more of an angle and then just slip right off. So maybe for stuff like this, this rubber is not ideal. Yeah I'm gonna put on my normal shoes with a normal rubber and see look how soft that is. It actually feels a little bit more secure with this rubber on that hold. So I think for this boulder the normal shoes are gonna win but we'll see. You know what I'm gonna go back to the Vibram rubber. I was not able to do it but at least my foot didn't slip. I think maybe it's too soft for that foothold where you just have to put all your weight on one tiny foothold. Oh, you're supposed to do that, okay. Now the foot didn't slip though. It's really hard to say what it is, if it was the shoes the first time, or if it was just me not putting enough pressure on. I'm not sure. I'm still not sure if my beta though is great. I think maybe what you're supposed to do is just jump out. Could work. My foot slipped that time too. It just, it feels too soft for this. That does not work. How do I do this? Okay, you know what? I'm just gonna cheat the whole boulder. I think I've found a way that could work, which is this. I think I could do it though, that way. I always feel bad when I cheat boulders like that, but it is the route setter's job to make sure people can't cheat it like that, so. Oh my God, this is very good for the, the rubber should be pretty good on this though. Oh, I just fumbled. Look at that. Look at the marks my shoe left. It felt really good though on this. I thought my foot was gonna pop. When I stood on that, and I think with my normal shoes, I think my shoes would have. So in the start, I was very surprised. Now after this problem, I'm a little bit more like 50-50. If I had this rubber on my shoe, I would probably use it around 50% of the time. Keep in mind, I have been using that rubber for 2015-16, so 10 years I've been using this. And then this is brand new to me, so that could also be a factor. You know what though? I think to do this, I should I have one soft shoe on my right and then I want a hard left shoe so I can really put pressure on that last foothold because then I can smear really well with my right and I can still put pressure on that tiny edge with my left. F***ing hell it's so annoying that last hole because I like it's like a slot so only get like two fingers in you need to get three. F*** yeah it was the no shirt That's the first thing, I think, so that's probably it. A bigger hack than climbing rubber. The thing is, after we started using these mics, I haven't been able to climb shirtless. And as soon as I take off my shirt, I do this. Makes me think that I've been like, almost like wearing a weight vest. I don't know, my conclusion I guess is that it's definitely useful for some types of climbing. And if I wanted to make sure I have the tools to climb anything, I would definitely Bring a pair of shoes with rattan rubber. So what do you guys think? Is this more of a gimmick or does it actually work? Also, let me know in the comments if you want me to test anything else. And I will see you next time.