I demoed a ton of shoes from lots of different vendors at a climbing festival, and this was by far the best. It really hugs your foot and arch without digging into your achilles tendon (like I find the scarpa booster does). There is a little stiffening plate in the toe that helps with edging but it doesn't sacrifice feel for the rock. The heel hook rail doesn't do much as far as I can tell but it doesn't detract either. I'm a big fan.

I use these primarily for sport and bouldering. Everything you have read about the performance is probably true. The bubble under your toe allows for wonderful articulation of your toes and all around this shoe is built extremely well. My contribution is this: When i first bought these around 3-5 months ago, i quite literally had to use coco butter the first time i put them on because they were so stiff. Like any shoe they were painful for quite awhile before wearing in. Now, I am here in China and these shoes have stretched significantly to the point where they still fit... but a bit to nicely. I do not have the precise to power i need in these shoes and can pretty much wear them all day even when cranked down. fortunately i have another pair (or 2 :P ) back home and will be careful to use those sparingly OR not to keep the pair i have used heavily for easier routes and use my new pair for hard routes to keep them tight.

so i was looking for a next shoe, having come from a more comfortable all-day evolv demorto shoe. being primarily a boulder-er, i was looking for a slightly more aggressive shoe, but not ready for a slip-on or a really really down-turned shoe. from the reviews here, it turned out the feroce was an excellent choice. however, there was nowhere to try it on since none of the places in the SF bay area carried this shoe. why is that??? REI had the veloce and technos. no offense, but REI fremont has nothing. BUT after i read some of the reviews here and tried to do an educated guess (totally a shot in the dark, actually) for what size would fit me in these shoes, i ordered a 41.5 (even though the techno 42's were perfect for my feet - slightly cramped for brand new shoes of course). just like the techno's, however, the 41.5 feroce's would not allow my heel to get into the shoe, no matter how much i tried. i measured them side-by-side (at REI) and they were near identical. of course the shapes varied a bit and shape too, but the sizing is pretty much the same.

i dont know if i should say "dont listen to the reviews on sizing". but if you need an estimate, please try on the other scarpa shoes. they arent going to be far off.

on to the actual shoe. it's awesome because it's not a flat board your toes/ball step on. the toes curl under the box and gives you more of a feel of the edges of the shoe. it actually locks it in place. i know for my previous shoes, they would eventually shift over to the outside over time, which is annoying. the three velcro straps keep everything in very well and snuggly. these are just awesome shoes!

oh i should probably add that these are not very aggressive as the pictures online show. when i got them, i thought to myself, these look flat. but they're not, side-by-side with my day-long shoes. but not enough to wear them out after 30 mins of bouldering.

i'll write more once i get a really good feel for them!

If you're buying them online and have owned other Scarpas before, make sure you get them at least a half size smaller than you did w the boosters or magos (the only other two I've had). Maybe even a full size. I was a 42.5 with those two shoes but I'm a 41.5 in these. Great shoe though =)

This is a great shoe for overhanging rock. If you can't or don't want to wear a severely downturned shoe due to discomfort or whatever, this is the ticket. The overall last is flat to slightly downturned, but there the sole has a noticeable downturn just at the big toe. This makes the shoe perform incredibly well when toed-in on tiny edges and pockets on overhanging terrain.The downsides? These are extremely painful to wear on slabs. Vertical rock is bearable. Keep these on steep stuff where they belong. Also, the curvature and stiffness of the sole makes it difficult to smear on sloping footholds, overhanging or not.The shoe does not stretch in length at all thanks to the generous rand coverage over the toes. Heel and toe hooking performance is excellent.The Vibram XS rubber is, IMO, better than either 5.10's Stealth of Evolv's Trax. It's stickier, but may be less durable.Perfect bouldering shoe, or sport climbing shoe for places like the Red River Gorge or Rumney (where the footholds tend to be positive).

Bought these shoes yesterday at a local shop and headed to the gym for some light climbing to break them in. Less than three hours later the rubber rand on the posterior portion of the toe cap has started peeling. Possibly a warrenty issue and will see about getting a new pair today.

Worked wonders on tiny holds, comfortable in the cracks, still a little unsure on the heel for hooking. The three velcro closure puts a tight and snug fit around your foot. A lace up feel with velcro ease. I can't wait to finish breaking them in and really get a feel for them.

4.5 stars, 5 if my toe cap is a warrenty issue that gets fixed. Deffinatly recommended.