Black Diamond Zone Climbing Shoe | Outdoor 2018

Hi, I'm Lin, the technical shoe designer here at Black Diamond. And remember last year when we introduced the shoe line, we had four new models as the initial launch of the shoe program, and this year we're going to add one model to that range. And if you can remember, we started off with this nice flat all-knit shoe for comfort, breathability, and price. And then what we did was we came up with the leather version, stiffer and more durable for more outside long route type of climbing. The full strength full length midsole is stiffer so that'll support your feet for longer days climbing. And then we had a soft high performance mostly indoor or very steep rock climbing shoe called the Shadow that allows us to grab and pull with our feet. And then the Focus, very soon here will be on the market, is the stiffer version that allows us to have a lot more support on smaller holds for the type of climbing where we have more weight on our feet compared to the type of climbing where we're climbing on steeper overhanging rock where the shadow plays so this is the softest shoe in our line and this is the stiffest shoe currently in our line the new shoe the zone will fall right in the middle and the zone will have all the feature benefits of a knitted upper in terms of breathability, in terms of quick drying, in terms of keeping your feet from not sweating too much, and also comfort. But instead of now having a flat profile like we did in the Momentum, we're going to now curl our toes and get it in a much more powerful position. In the same position actually, the same last and the same shape as our shadow. The zone will come in four colors and two volumes, a regular volume and then a low volume. And what we mean by low volume is across the ball of the foot it's narrower and it's lower volume behind the toes all the way up to the instep strap, lower volume in the heel and also lower volume in the heel cup. And we want to make sure that we point out that it's actually a volume difference and not a male-female because we have men who have skinny, narrower, lower volume feet as well. the entire color range the colors are more gender neutral so that a woman that has a wide foot is fine in these colors and then a man with a narrow foot will be fine in these colors as well okay so again a cambered shape two straps and you notice the rear strap here this time is nice and wide so it contains our our um instep better for heel hooking and for general edging it also has a full-length midsole that's stiff to help support our feet on smaller holds. So that's the Zone coming in Spring 2019, retailing for 130 euros.