Whether you’re a beginner or an experienced climber, choosing the right climbing shoes is crucial for optimizing your performance and ensuring your comfort. But with so many models on the market, how do you make the right choice? This guide will help you understand the various criteria to consider when finding the ideal pair of climbing shoes. Let us guide you through the process together.
Climbing shoes come in several types, each suited to a particular climbing style:
Flat Shoes
Perfect for beginners, but not just for them. They offer optimal comfort and are ideal for long sessions or multi-pitch climbs. Their neutral shape allows for good versatility. While they are often summarized as "for beginners," this isn’t entirely true, especially for multi-pitch climbs, where their low curvature makes them comfortable during long ascents.
Downturned (Aggressive) Shoes
These shoes are often chosen by advanced climbers, but again... not exclusively. The downturned shape promotes better power transfer to small footholds, especially useful in sport climbing and bouldering.
However, it's not uncommon to see people quickly start using these tools of torture, often too soon, before developing proper foot placement techniques. This can lead to counterproductive use, as these climbers won’t fully benefit from the shoes’ potential, likely end their sessions early due to pain (especially if they choose a size that’s too small), and wear out the shoes prematurely (and their price is definitely not budget-friendly).
Intermediate Shoes
Offering a compromise between comfort and performance, they are suitable for intermediate climbers looking to progress to more technical routes. These are shoes where the curvature and toe point sharpness fall between the first two categories. This is likely the category that should suit the majority, including experienced climbers.
The size of your climbing shoes is a crucial factor for both comfort and performance. Here are some tips to choose the right size:
Try them on at the end of the day
Your feet tend to swell throughout the day. Trying on shoes in the evening will help you avoid choosing a size that’s too small. More than the time of day, what’s important is the swelling of your feet.
A snug but comfortable fit
Your toes should touch the end of the shoe without being painfully compressed. The goal is to find a balance between a snug fit for precision and some comfort to avoid prolonged pain. This is likely the most debated point! Let's be clear: a climbing shoe won’t be comfortable; if it is, you're probably wearing flip-flops by the pool. But don’t go to the extreme. For beginners, just as many decide to transition to expert shoes too quickly, these individuals often go for extremely tight shoes. So, a tip: gradually reduce the size and understand that it’s not the smallest size that will make you climb better. It might even turn you off.
Consider the material's elasticity
Natural leather shoes stretch more over time, while synthetic ones retain their shape better. Keep this in mind when choosing the size. And be careful; it’s easier said than done. The mix of materials in new shoes complicates this judgment, and you’ll only truly understand the elasticity over time. Be cautious not to choose shoes that are too tight, hoping they’ll stretch because that might not happen or not sufficiently.
On this point, we’re dealing with a secondary, though not negligible, aspect that largely depends on personal preference. The closure system of your shoes influences both comfort and ease of use:
Laces
Offer a precise fit and are ideal for climbers who want to customize the tightness according to their needs.
Velcro
Convenient for bouldering sessions where you frequently remove and put your shoes back on. They are quick to slip on and adjust.
Slippers
Very flexible and lightweight, they are perfect for climbers seeking high sensitivity. However, they might lack support for long routes.
The materials used for the sole and upper part of the shoe greatly influence the climbing experience:
Stiff Sole
Provides excellent support on small holds, ideal for beginners or long routes.
Soft Sole
Offers better sensitivity, allowing experienced climbers to feel holds underfoot more effectively. However, they require better foot placement techniques.
Upper Materials
Leather is more breathable and adapts to the shape of the foot over time, while synthetic materials are more durable and retain their shape better.
Finally, your choice of climbing shoes should reflect your climbing style (it’s not the shoe that makes the climber, but the other way around):
Sport Climbing
Favor downturned shoes with good grip to tackle technical routes.
Bouldering
Opt for soft shoes with high sensitivity to feel micro-holds. But this flexibility should be sought over time because it is more physically demanding, requires more technique to exploit, and often leads to less durable shoes.
Multi-pitch Climbing
Prefer comfortable, flat, or slightly downturned shoes with good stiffness to support your feet over long periods.
The best climbing shoe is the one that makes you feel the most comfortable on the wall. Don’t hesitate to try different models and sizes to find the perfect shoe. Of course, it will take time (because you won’t buy a pair every month, right? You won’t, right!). But see this time as a long journey during which you can focus on other aspects of climbing (like technique or physical conditioning). It’s not wasted time; it’s actually a great learning experience. Don’t switch shoes just because your friends have smaller, tighter, more curved, more "something" shoes. You won’t level up three grades just by getting a new pair of rubber. And above all, trust your feelings: a good climbing shoe should allow you to climb confidently while respecting your feet.