KCLMC Guide to buying a new pair of Climbing Boots
Fed up of hiring smelly, badly fitting, completely worn out boots when you visit a climbing wall? Feel like you're ready to get your own pair of rock shoes? Well make sure you give this article a read to get lots of good tips and learn a few things to look out for when buying your first pair of climbing boots.
One end of the spectrum are completely symmetrical shoes, with rounded toes, likely to be lace up. At the other are very technical, completely assymmetrical shoes, focussed much more on the big toes, probably velcro.
The first type are likely to be more comfortable, cheaper and will probably last longer.
The second type are going to be more expensive and not be as comfortable. However, you will be able to use much smaller footholds and your foot will feel much better supported.
Lace up vs Velcro: Lace up gives a better fit along the entire length of the foot, and helps reduce dead space in the shoe (space where you foot isn't touching the side and is full of air). I have always had lace up shoes. Velcro however is quicker, and for harder routes people will probably slip the shoes off when belaying/resting and only put them on when they are actually going to climb. This is also because they're probably going to be quite painful to wear too!!
Brands: there are a lot of different climbing shoe manufacturers out there. Scarpa, Boreal, Five-Ten, La Sportiva etc. I wouldn't pay too much attention to getting one brand over another, they are all pretty good. What I would say is different brands make their shoes for slightly different foot shapes. For example, I have quite long thin feet and have always gone with Scarpa boots as they fit my feet really well. I try on different brands but always seem to come back to scarpa. Things to look out for when trying on shoes for fit are: tight but not painful, no dead space (ie pockets of air in the shoe, especially check around the heel). Think about whether you want to wear them with socks or in bare feet. Socks are more comfortable and warmer (important for rock climbing on mountain crags) however the shoes won't perform as well with socks on. It would be comparable to climbing with gloves on. You could do easy stuff fine and it would be comfy but once things start getting hard you would struggle.
Use: A lot depends on what you are going to use the shoes for. If you want to go climbing outside on mountain crags a lot, then I would recommend getting a comfortable, lace up shoe that you can wear with socks. However, if you are climbing quite hard and mainly indoors/sport routes then maybe consider getting a more technical shoe, possibly velcro.
Word to the wise: ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS try lots of shoes on before you buy! Go to a shop (Ellis Brighams (Southamptom Street), Snow and Rock (Covent Garden + South Ken), Urban Rock (Castle Climbing Wall)) and ask to try on lots of different shoes. You will soon know what fits your feet well. Again, they want to be tight but not painful. Bear in mind too that a lot of shoes will stretch a tiny bit. I would estimate that to get a good pair of beginner boots is probably £60-70 now days (with rubbish pound vs euro exchange rate resulting in all european imports shooting up in price). Also, try shoes on, see what fits, remember the size then look around on the internet. Some online shops do brilliant deals.
Below is a list of useful websites for buying shoes and gear in general:
Also check out Decathlon - they have some great shoes for the money conscious. These vary from the very basic shoes that are suited to the very occasional climber to quite technical shoes that are still available at a budget price.
The 10% BMC discount that KCLMC members are entitled to at lots of shops may need some kind of proof in order to work. We do give out membership cards which will state your BMC affiliation to everyone who's paid up but we've not got them printed yet (we are working on it!). In case you want to have a go anyway, you need to tell them that it's a group membership for KCLMC and our membership number is 910320 - make sure to present your KCL student card as well.
Final thing I promise! The shoes I have owned: started with Scarpa Helix, then the Scarpa Vantage before now the Scarpa Spectro's. Check out all 3 and you'll see the first is a very round, beginner shoe. Then the Vantage is slightly more assymmetrical before the Spectro's are just mental. As my climbing has gradually improved my shoes have got progressively more technical.
Hope you're not completely confused and good luck!
By Martin Davies
