Climbing Shoe Guide - 12+ Bouldering Shoe Reviews

As you can see, I have a lot of climbing shoes here. Um, yes, I do have a problem. My name is Noah. I'm with Connective Climbing. And today we're doing a climbing shoe tier list for some context to make me look less like a shoe hoarder here. I've worked in the climbing industry for seven, eight years. I worked as a professional route setter. I also climb outside of my work. So that's one of the big reasons I have a lot of shoes. As a route setter, you do get discounts. You get given shoes to test them out. So take that as you will. I do have a lot of shoes though. This also gives you a little bit of context as to how I'm making this tier list. I am a boulderer. I don't try to climb much. I don't try to climb ever. I'm not a huge sport climber. So all these shoes I'll be talking about and creating this tier list as a boulderer who climbs inside and outside, mostly outside. So yeah, a little bit of context. Yeah, so the tier list, the way this will work, we'll do an S tier. That's absolute top of the top, obviously. Then we'll do A, B, and C. Just keep it simple. This is not every shoe ever. So I haven't tried every shoe. I've tried a lot though, so we'll get started. Our first shoe we have here. This is the La Sportiva Miura VS. This is the women's shoe. This is one of my first shoes I ever bought. When I first got into climbing, I was obsessed. I came out to Colorado. I still lived in Florida at the time. And I was like, oh, I'm going to go to REI. They have a big REI in Colorado. And I wanted to buy a new pair of shoes. Didn't know what I was doing. Didn't know what I needed. I was still bouldering and sport climbing at the time. And I remember I had seen a video of Hazel Finley doing some like really sketchy sport climbing trad mix thing. And she was wearing Miuras. And there are some people at the gym that also had these. I was like, okay, I'll buy these. As a bouldering shoe, I'd put these in the C tier probably. Not the best for bouldering. However, for vertical sport climbing and really small, delicate feet and technical climbing, these are amazing for that. So just because I'm putting in the C tier doesn't mean they're a bad shoe. They just didn't fit for what I needed as a boulderer. These shoes are also pretty notorious for being uncomfortable. I think they really smash your toe a bit. But if you're doing really vertical technical sport climbing, these things are amazing for that. So not the best bouldering shoe. One of the first shoes I ever bought. This is my second pair of shoes ever. My first pair ever. I don't have any more. My first pair of shoes ever were the Scarpa Helix. It's a lace-up shoe. Great beginner shoe. I'm not even gonna put that one in the tier list because I don't have an example of it. All right, next pair of shoes. Now, if you've been climbing for a while, you know what these are. These are a legendary pair of shoes. These are the 510 Dragons. And these are the original 510 Dragons. Yeah, if you started climbing before I did, I started climbing in 2017. These were the legendary hard climb shoe. I just knew that if you climbed really hard stuff, you wore Dragons. And the cool thing was to wear these, don't lace them up. Like, why would you lace them up? The Dragon was a really great shoe. I bought this shoe when I had first really started to kind of understand like, oh, like hard bouldering, maybe the sport climbing shoe that I had in the Miura wasn't the best. Now this shoe at the time, kind of unbeatable. Yeah, all the hard climbers at the time wore these. They were really, really, really good in steep terrain for the time. Looking back on them now, I don't love them as much. But at the time, these things were in the S tier for sure. I think more for nostalgia's sake and just looking back now, I'll probably put these in the B tier. The heel wasn't very good. And like I said, I never laced them and I don't love the laces nowadays. So I'll put it in the B tier. But at the time, they were S tier. This shoe is one of the next shoes that I got. And again, I was still a newer climber around the time I bought these. These are the La Sportiva Solutions. Back in the day, same thing. After the like year of the Dragon, the Dragon was kind of maybe on its way out. It was mostly because of this shoe. Now not in this, not in the women's version at the time. I think they only had the men's version. But yeah, the La Sportiva Solution, this is an iconic shoe. I remember watching videos, Adam Ondra, Daniel Woods at the time, he was still with La Sportiva. They were climbing the hardest boulders and routes in the world in these shoes. And I was like, I want to be like them. Honestly, this shoe is still one of the best. I wear the other version of the shoe. I'll get to that one shortly. I wear the other version of the shoe exclusively. But this shoe is amazing. Whether you're a sport climber or a boulderer, this thing is all time. It's super good on pretty much everything, especially climbing in steep terrain. The heel on the original Solution isn't the best. It's a bit of a golf ball. But yeah, the normal Solution, I'm going to put in the A tier. These are Brooks pair. That's hence why they're so small. Standard La Sportiva Solution A tier. All right, so following suit, we have our next shoe. This is the La Sportiva Solution Comp. This shoe came out after the Solution had kind of been around for a while. Now, I mentioned earlier that La Sportiva Solution is an iconic shoe. Tons of people wore it kind of everywhere if you were watching the best boulders or sport climbers at the time. And then when La Sportiva came out with this version, they essentially improved upon the shortcomings of the normal Solution. So I have this shoe in both the women's and the men's. This shoe is my main outdoor bouldering shoe. I think for climbing in Colorado in particular, if you're climbing in steep terrain or you need to really toe in on tiny, nice edges, that's G-N-E-I-S-S, nice. Yeah, anyways, if you're trying to toe in on really small holds in the steep, which is what you're doing in Colorado a lot, this shoe cannot be beaten. I absolutely love this shoe and I've climbed a lot of my hardest climbs wearing these. I have both versions because they were out of stock in this one. So this is kind of my training shoe. I do like the soft version, the women's version a little bit more, but honestly, this is just one of my favorite shoes of all time. La Sportiva Solution Comp, this is the men's version. And this is the women's version. Love these shoes. These are S tier for me. These are absolutely super, super, super good shoe. In the gym, it's amazing. I don't think that's its best place to be used, but still amazing in the gym and just absolutely can't be beat for bouldering in Colorado. Highly recommend La Sportiva Solution Comps. Next shoe we have here is from Tenaya. This is the Tenaya Mastia. Not sure how to pronounce it exactly. Thinking about what I use this for in climbing outside and climbing inside, this is one of the most comfortable, high-performance shoes I've ever worn. The other shoes that I've talked about previously that I like to use outside, they're not the most comfortable. I don't wear them for comfort. Now this shoe, I've worn this shoe and I've worn the Indolo, which is very similar platform to this. I found that the Mastia was one of the best comfortable platforms. And if you notice, it's not super asymmetrical and it's not super downturned. And if you feel like you don't like climbing in a super downturned or super asymmetrical shoe, this shoe could be a really good option for you. Now I found that it still wasn't quite what I liked personal preference-wise. I found that overall, this shoe would get the job done, but it didn't have that X-factor that I was looking for a lot of times with the La Sportiva Solution. Highly recommend these shoes if you are trying to find something comfortable. I'd put these shoes in... Where would I put these shoes? I'd put the Mastia in the A-tier and I'd put the Indolo in the B-tier. I like the Mastia just a little bit more for bouldering. They just have a little bit more toe hook rubber here. The Indolo's closure system, I think just got in the way a little bit, but Mastia A-tier, Indolo B-tier. Next shoe we have is the Madrock Shark 2.0. This shoe has definitely seen some better days. It's really beat up. Yeah, I bought this shoe for a very particular reason. I wanted a affordable training shoe and I ended up using this for more than just training. Madrock, I feel, is super underrated. They did have some issues with the delaminating. So if you look, this rubber is falling off right here. From what I understand, their newest Shark and all their new shoes got rid of this. So they fixed that in their newest version of their shoes. But yeah, the Madrocks are the most affordable shoe for high-performance climbing, in my opinion. Earlier, I mentioned some shoes you pick for comfort, some you pick for performance. The Madrocks, I feel, you pick for affordability and performance. This shoe also has the famous Madrock heel. I'll mention this a few times, but Madrock has one of the best heels. Mostly used outside, can be used occasionally inside to your advantage. But some people call it the cheater heel. I don't think this is very controversial anymore. It's just part of climbing evolving. But yeah, the Madrock Shark, I would have liked it a lot more, I think, if I hadn't had the delaminating issue. I didn't love the Shark a ton after I tried some of the other Madrocks. So I'd put the Madrock Shark in... I might put this one in the C-tier. Nothing personal. This is a Madrock Drone. I don't have my drones with me. Just pretend there's a Madrock Drone. And I tried the Drones after I tried the Madrock Shark. And I felt that that shoe was a big improvement over the Shark in some ways. Though the Drone is still a very strange shape. So it takes some time to get used to it. I still think the Drones are an amazing shoe. I wore the narrow version of the Drone. If you have a narrow foot and you feel like other shoes that you've tried are still too wide, Madrock's narrow fits are actually narrow. So I'd put the Madrock Drone in the B-tier. Next shoe I'll talk about. This is the Madrock Redline. Now the Madrock Redline is a shoe that Madrock's been making for a while. And I just always overlooked it for some reason. But I think that this is Madrock's best shoe. At least it's my personal favorite. Now this shoe has everything that the Drone and the Shark have. One, it's affordable. Two, it has a really nice simple closure system. It has the Madrock heel on the back. And this one also has really good toe hooking rubber. All the Madrock shoes I think do those three things well. But this one in my opinion does it the best. I bought the Madrock Redline because I wanted a shoe that had the Madrock heel. But I didn't love how my other Madrocks were still delaminating. So this is a fixed version. I haven't had any issues with the delaminating on this. So I sometimes will wear just one Madrock. Or sometimes I wear both. But yeah, this Madrock Redline, I'd put this in an A-tier. I think this is a really great shoe. And here's the patented Madrock heel. All right, next pair we have here is from Scarpa. These are the Scarpa Instinct Women's. Yeah, these are another really classic all-time shoe. Really good for both sport climbing and bouldering. This is a stiffer shoe I think compared to some of the other shoes we've shown. It has the kind of classic shape that a lot of hard climbing shoes do have. It's pretty asymmetrical so it's turned in and it's got that downturn. I really like this shoe but I find that it's still a little too stiff for my personal preference. So this isn't my favorite shoe from Scarpa. I still think for what it does, it's pretty hard to beat. I like this shoe more for vertical to slightly overhanging terrain as opposed to straight cave climbing or super steep climbing. So I'm gonna put this in A-tier. The shoe that I do like over this one is the VSR version. Scarpa is just now coming out with the women's version of the VSR. I'm hoping to try that shoe someday. I think that could be the S-tier Instinct. Hopefully I could try sometime. I've got another shoe here from Scarpa. This is the Scarpa Drago in the women's version. This shoe is also a shoe that you'll probably have seen before. This shoe is really amazing. It's a lot softer than your traditional Instinct that I just showed. You can see I've really worn through the rubber on these guys. Yeah, so this is high performance, amazing in the gym and really good outside as well. I think you get the best sensitivity in the Drago that you do out of almost any shoe. Not gonna include the Furia Air. I'm not advanced enough for those shoes, I don't think. But yeah, the Scarpa Drago, highly recommend it if you're a gym climber and you like sensitive shoes that perform well at every terrain. Highly recommend the Scarpa Drago. They make this in the yellow version and the white version. This is the low volume. I always get confused. Some climbing companies will call it low volume, high volume. And then they'll also have a men's and women's. This is a low volume shoe. So if you have a narrower foot, it's good for you. But I'm gonna put this one in the S tier. Only time I don't end up using this is sometimes when I'm outside, it's too soft. But this shoe for indoor gym climbing, hard climbing, really good. This is another shoe from La Sportiva. This is also a no edge shoe. This is the La Sportiva Futura. It doesn't look like this anymore. This is one of the older versions, the women's shoe. Yeah, really cool shoe, but I didn't find the place that this worked the best for me. So I think for the price point and for what it was used for, it didn't work for me, but it works for somebody. I've seen these shoes used in very particular situations. I'm gonna put these in B tier because they are a good shoe. I just never found what I should be using it for. All right, and we have our last pair here. These are the La Sportiva Theories. Now this shoe, again, is a very particular shoe. Now these to me, if you are an indoor comp climber, these are your shoe. That's exactly what they were made for. They're super soft. They have a traditional, they don't have the no edge here. They have a traditional toe box, but they do have a really interesting wrapped rubber on the sides. And that's meant for climbing on volumes specifically. Yeah, if you're an indoor comp climber, these shoes are really good for that. I found that when I went outside and climbed in these, they were just too soft, hurt my toes. It's maybe a skill issue on my part, but yeah, the La Sportiva Theories, really good for comp climbing. I would put these in A tier. Both of these are theories. One is the men's, one's the women's. The women's is gonna be slightly softer. I like these, but I found that when I put these side by side, I tend to pick up these more than these. And the reason I like the Dragos just a tiny bit more is personal preference. It came down to what I was used to climbing in. These are a bit more niche. These are a bit more all around in my opinion. But if you are an aspiring comp climber, if you are a comp climber, if you like soft shoes, highly recommend trying the Theories out. Yeah, super cool. All right, so in my bag, these are the four pairs that I kind of cycled between. Yeah, like I said, I've not tried every shoe ever. I'm a boulderer. There's a lot of sport climbing specific shoes that just don't quite work for me. I tend to use these shoes when I'm climbing outside because they're soft. The women's is a little bit softer than the men. I use the men's shoe also outside, but I use this in the gym because it's just a little bit stiffer. I use this when I'm gym climbing or when I'm outside and I need a soft shoe. And then I use this shoe, the Mad Rock Redline, when I need to use a Mad Rock heel. I'll cycle between these four shoes. These are kind of my favorites at the time being. If I could make my dream shoe, this is what I would do. I've always wanted to do this. This would be super cool. If you could help me make this happen, please call me. I'd want to take this part of the shoe, right? You keep the toe box of the Solution Comm, but then you put the toe hook rubber of the Drago, right? So you combine those two things. The midsole, I haven't thought about the midsole. Let's do the midsole of the women's Solution Comm. And then for the heel, I want to take the Mad Rock heel and put that on there. That would be my dream shoe. So if you can make that happen, call me. This is my first go at a tier list. So if you'd like more in-depth reviews for these shoes, maybe we can do that in the future. Like I said at the very beginning, if you're a new climber and you're watching and consuming all this information, you're like, I got to figure out what shoe is best. A lot of times it's trial and error. Something that really works well for me might not work for you. The shape of your foot is different. I highly recommend shopping locally if you can. Check out your climbing gym's retail store if they have shoes. It's great to be able to try those on in person and support your local climbing gym. It can be really hard because like I said, it's personal preference. Don't get too caught up on which shoe is best. You'll figure it out over time. And just remember, the shoe that you pick is not going to work for every scenario. So pick the right shoe for the right situation or just have an overall training shoe. And re-souling is something that I haven't talked about in this video. But if you're a new climber and you're like, how am I going to afford this? This is expensive. For example, these shoes retail for $210 US dollars. That's seriously expensive. I try to have two pairs of shoes that I have at all times. That way I'm not burning through one pair really quickly. I realize that costs more money too. So re-souling is something you can do where when you're starting to get down, you're wearing down the life of the rubber, you can send it to somebody. They'll take the rubber off and put new rubber on. So in these shoes, you can see here, there's this line. Once this line goes away and you start to climb on the toe cap, which is the rubber underneath that line, you need to start thinking about getting the shoes re-souled at that point. You can see here, if you've blown through them like this, you can't really re-souled them. They can replace the rubber under here, but it's going to be more expensive. So yeah, that's an affordable option. Re-souling typically costs around 40 bucks. I'm not a huge fan of how the shoes feel after re-souling, but it is an economical option for you. Again, I collected these over seven, eight years. All right, don't think I'm crazy. Yeah, so thanks for watching this video. If you'd like more shoe reviews, tier lists, that type of stuff, let us know in the comments. If you want us to try a particular shoe, Brooke or myself, let us know. Or if you're a shoe brand, hit us up. I've tried a bunch of different shoes. And like I said, these are what's in my bag now, but that might change in the future. So it will definitely change if someone can make me my Franken-shoe. If you are a shoe company and you're watching me talk about the Franken-shoe, just pretend you didn't hear anything. Thanks for watching.