Heyo, it's been a while I haven't wrote anything in my website, so I found some time to put in words my personal experience using some climbing shoe models! So first of all, I'll present some models, that I used by myself for long time. Although most of these models doesn't exist anymore you can think of their successors having similar capabilities:

  • MadRock Super Loko *****:

My all time favorite climbing shoe - yeah! Being a hook-master, these shoes are the best for this purpose! For indoor climbing the shoes can be called even H0 shoes!!! They are stretching very fast so buy around 3 sizes smaller, than you usually wear. (I wear 44.5 - 45 and have Super Lokos at 41.5 - 42).


Here to mention, that almost all of the last models suffer from bad rubber. Friend of mine, Martin, spoke about that issue in a blog post in German language: http://www.boulderholics.de/blog/index.php?/archives/11-Testbericht-Mad-Rock-Contact-im-Test.html

Successors: Climbx E-Motion (having worst toehook, than super loko, also the velcro gets fucked up in the first day!), Mad Rock Demon 2.0 (won't think the heel hook is that good as it is in super loko)

  • FiveTen Team *****:

Edited! Time ago while trying I found nothing special in this model and wasn't used to the perform good with this shoe. An online offer for 84 euros changed all of this and I bought 2 pairs mainly for training in the gym. It turned out to be a very good climbing shoe and it definitely deserves five stars for its performance outside. It gives you superb feeling on placing hooks (all kind of) combined with very sharp edge feeling that is perfect for steep and roof climbing! A small drawbacks are that in the gym it's not that good (maybe because the shoes are very well rounded and the typical gym holds are very edgy), also the heel hook gets wide with the time, which makes it worse. Another drawback for others and positive side for me is the smell of the shoes! Yeah, you can provoke respect in the gym just by taking your team pair out of the bag!

No Successors.

  • MadRock Hooker and Conflict ***:

Cheaper version of Super Loko that I used, cause bought cheaper online. Was good to do some training with pretty decent shoes.

Successors: Worn both Climbx RockIt and Mad Rock Conflict 2.0. They aren't better than the previous model in my opinion, but are good as it gets for the money!

  • MadRock Mugen ***:

Perfect shoe for training. I had one pair of those and used them always to do endurance training in the boulder gym or in the climbing gym, also sometimes in combination with weights. Easy to take off also to take on, which makes them comfortable. Due to their flat design they are good for beginners too. Of course, on roof climbing they don't perform that well, but I used them on vertical climbing outside and they were perfect! Also due to the typical mad rock hook, they are good for traverses as well.

Successors: New Mugen, Mugen Tech, Mugen 2.0 ...

  • FiveTen Anasazi ****:

For slab masters! You'll fell glued to the wall with those! These are also my walk-around shoes. I mean when I have them I don't need to take them off for hours! (so buy around 1 size or half size smaller than you usually wear).

No Successors: Perfection doesn't need successors :)

  • Rock Pillars Top Gun ****:

a.k.a. the cheaper Super Loko :) I wrote some short article about the shoes in german language couple of years ago (http://www.boulderholics.de/blog/index.php?/archives/42-Rock-Pillars-Top-Gun-im-Test.html). Anyway will write down here in english the essence of what I wrote there. I bought the shoes, cause they were in a cheap offer, but it turned out to be a pretty decent model. Almost performing that well like the Super Loko, but being cheaper too. Indoors werent the best shoes you can use, but outdoors when I needed to hook somewhere without ledges (clean wall) I preffered them over the Super Loko! Especially at the end of their "life", when they were good worn off, the performance was at top level! There is the problem as well that the velcro gets fucked up very fast from toe-hooks! Ah, yeah and buy 2-3 sizes smaller than you usually wear and expect red feets every time :)

No Successors, however should have been optimized once in a while :)

  • Rock Pillars Zion ***:

Not bad for newbies! My first shoe, and it didn't disappointed me!

No Successors, should also evolve with time :)

  • Evolv Pontas *:

Well this shoe sucks at full! I am pretty sure if Chris Sharma used other shoes we would have climbed grade harder! The rubber is the most fucked rubber I have ever worn, together with the Boreal shit. The hooks sucked at full. The design is also fucked up and doesn't fits me and my friends. The only good is that you would be able to wear those pretty long time compared to other shoes...

  • Boreal Q-X:

Cheap training shit, I bought and felt sorry! No friction at all, slippery inside too, also the velcro won't stand 10 toe hooks one after another... So be aware - this is very fucked up model! Now, since I've worn this shoes for year I can tell, they are pretty durable and easy to repair by yourself! Mostly used them to train on easy boulders with weight vest.

No Successors - better so :)

  • WildClimb Spider *:

Full of shit... But may be not that bad for newcomers, also not that bad to walk around with, without taking them out.

No Successors :)

Now few words about shoes I did some hard boulders with, or some hard sessions outside:

  • La Sportiva Solution *****:

This is the real shit! Unfortunately this shoe fits to my feet not that good! Anyway, did some boulders with this one and felt all solid. All friends are telling the same! For this model take 2-3 sizes smaller than you usually wear.

No Successors -> perfection!

  • La Sportiva Muira ****:

Wall climbing at another level! Superb for vertical routes and good for bouldering as well! And don't forget - take 2-3 sizes smaller!

  • Scarpa Booster ****:

Also a real shit, that fits me not very good :( So be aware this master piece shoe may not fit your feet, but if it does - this is a nice shit to consider buying!!!

No Successors.

  • FiveTen Jet7 ***:

Very good climbing shoe, but didn't found anything special with that one too... Was in no way better then the Rock Pillars Top Gun model, only the price was much bigger! Also to mention, that indoors this shoe sux badly, but outdoors it's pretty good!

No Successors.

  • FiveTen Dragon *****:

This is the 45` Killer! E.g. for ~45 degree walls this is maybe the best shoe you can have! Like big number of Frankenjura crimp boulder pieces in system wall style :) It is also important to mention that you need to get accustomed to wear this shoes - they are for real advanced climbers. You need to have some strong toes, but it pays all off! To make a good suffer take 3 sizes smaller :)

No Successors -> perfection!

OK, this was what I've got to tell. Now a few words about some general shoe problems that may happen to some shoe models:

  • Rubber Tear Off, Velcro / Cords fucked up - your toe hook is not a weapon anymore?! This happens to Mad Rock Super Loko, La Sportiva Solution, All FiveTen shoes withouth the team shoe, but it sux anyway, happens actually to all shoes with glued rubber toe hook! Your heel hook is fucked up too?! This happens to all shoes with partial heel like FiveTen Anasazi, Evolv, Rock Pillars! Velcro fucked up is also an issue to ClimbX, Boreal... And all of these problems just few days after buy?!

  • Red Feet - pretty fucked up problem when you cannot take a shower for couple of days... happens to Rock Pillars, some Mad Rock models as far as I know. FiveTen in contrast are smelling especially bad :)

  • Holes in the rubber - don't tell me you are using Mad Rocks shoes to climb in the gym on vertical walls or for climbing with rope at all?!