Comments on: Climbing Shoe Rubber Test Results

By: MDS

MDS — Sun, 04 Apr 2010 21:56:41 +0000

For the beginners, some good tips here on choosing the best rock climbing shoes.

By: AmirG

AmirG — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 03:05:31 +0000

From what i remember they used a polished granite slab rather than textured granite that we encounter outdoors. Real world condition testing would be way more accurate. And La Sportive Frixion better than XSV?? Gimme a break spadout. How bout they hire me to do some REAL scientific testing

By: Belay Device Friction Test - All Climbing

Belay Device Friction Test - All Climbing — Tue, 13 Jan 2009 23:22:59 +0000

[...] up on their climbing shoe rubber friction test, Spadout has recently released a belay device friction test. While highly unscientific, this is at [...]

By: Followup to Climbing Shoe Rubber Test Results - All Climbing

Followup to Climbing Shoe Rubber Test Results - All Climbing — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 15:45:30 +0000

[...] Silliman, founder of Spadout, provided me the following feedback on the climbing shoe rubber study I recently posted: I wouldn’t have touched the climbing rubber test if I wasn’t willing [...]

By: sibylle

sibylle — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 02:00:44 +0000

I have several pairs of shoes for different types of rock and climbing. One for thin cracks at Indian Creek, one for wide cracks, another for limestone sport climbs —and i agree — we need to judge a shoe on more than the stickiness of its rubber.
(I’ve collected the various shoes over the years. I bought the wide crack shoe, the La Sportiva Mariacher, in 1991).

By: Kate C

Kate C — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 23:22:16 +0000

I love seeing comparative testing of climbing gear in a quantitative setting, but I agree, you need to see the whole picture before drawing conclusions. In particular, my husband and I have an on-going discussion about which is most important in shoe rubber: stickiness or durability. We climb in Vedauwoo quite a bit, and the crystaline granite just eats up 5.10 rubber. I occasionally get my shoes resoled twice a season, where his LaSportivas can go all year before they need resoling. I hope they mention something a long these lines in comparing. I think it might be possible for rubber to be too sticky – if it stays on the rock instead of the shoe.

By: Climbing Narcissist

Climbing Narcissist — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:15:35 +0000

It seems like it would have been more responsible of SpadOut to wait for the results of the 2nd round of testing before they published this. Most people will just read this report without thinking much of how the tests were conducted.

Not that Evolv’s rubber is better or worse than any other but I suspect most people would be surprised by a lot of the results.

By: Tom Markiewicz

Tom Markiewicz — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 22:01:45 +0000

My thoughts exactly! I’d love to see some more rigorous testing.

By: Climbing Narcissist

Climbing Narcissist — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:58:42 +0000

I was initially intrigued after seeing this but the way the tests were conducted sort of render the entire results meaningless. It will be interesting to see what the subsequent tests reveal.

By: Tom Markiewicz

Tom Markiewicz — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 21:51:14 +0000

Mark at Spadout tells me they will be doing a second round to this test in approximately 4-6 weeks. Hopefully they’ll look at additional surfaces and other variables.