Evolv Pontas Climbing Shoe

Fits right, little stretch with the synthetic uppers, sticky rubber, good mix of stiffness and flexibility, I got these to replace my La Sportiva Katana's and have not been disappointed. Love these for techy trad and steep sport. My only regret is the SUPER sticky rubber seems to wear out a little faster than some other shoes.

Had a pair of the Defy's as my first shoe and burned through the soles very quickly. I got a pair of these instead and am loving them! They are MUCH more durable and don't have the same smell issues that the Defy has. I wouldn't label myself as more then an intermediate climber but even for starting out these haven't been to aggressive. They do fit a little more snug then other Evolv shoes I should mention.

Wicked shoe!! After using the pontas for a while I fell in love. The fit is amazing with no dead space. I wear a 9.5/10 street shoe and a 9.5 in these. They are tight, but not too tight. The toe rand is awesome, you can toe hook with ease.(it took a little bit of time to get use to it though) The traxx rubber is the best out there, very STICKY. They also have the right enough of stiffness in them, you can feel every hold, but your feet wont get tired. Remember these shoes dont stretch!

The Pontas - sticky and snug. Perfect shoe for nearly everything except running.

These are my go to shoes. Like with other evolves, if its your first pair you want to go with your street size shoe. However, as your feet get use to wearing tight shoes you are going to drop sizes I am wearing a 9 now and my street shoe is a 10.5.

For my foot Evolv's shoes just fit great. The knuckle of my big toe screams in most other shoes. For some reason in Evolv's especially the Pontas they feel fine. Even with the extra toe rand on these bad boys which grab under holds great.

The heel is deep and you really have to pull to get the shoe on but they fit great. Heel sinks in and when on the rock there is no dead space. Great for heel hooks! I recommend these as your all around shoe. Bouldering or lead climbing you can't go wrong.

My first shoe was the defy, it was a decent shoe fit wise but I wore through the toes in under 2 months. The pontas was suggested to me as a step up and so far they have been great. They seem much more durable then the Defy and the fit is much more precise. The shoe does fit slightly tighter then the Defy, but that was expected. They do break in a little bit, at first they were almost painful but once they loosened up they became the absolute perfect fit. Love them, highly recommended. Oh and they smell just as bad as the Defy's did.

this is a great bouldering shoe. it is very thin and sensitive, and pretty durable (although i have yet to find an evolv shoe that is as durable as a fiveten..) the material is nice -- it barely stretches at all, even after months of climbing. my only complaint, which i'm pretty sure is universal for ANY strap up shoe, is that on a big toe hook one time the metal loop that the strap goes through dug into the top of my foot.

Love the stick it gets on lime stone. Been using em for my main outdoor shoe for a couple of months now and they seem to be holding up great against the daily action I put them through. My first pair of evolvs and I'm lovin em. But of course like all other synthetic material shoe they smell pretty bad.

I love where the Kaos has come to be. The Pontas is the re-vamped Kaos with all the sensitivity and toughness Chris has helped it become. This shoe has evolved so to speak, into a wonderful all around high performance shoe. I have had many pairs of these bad boys and have sent my hardest boulder problems in these kicks. The heel fits like a glove. The rubber has always been sticky enough to perform bicycle moves on rooves as well as top out on sketchy slab. One of my favorite Evolv shoes for sure.

I love these shoes so much. amazing all around shoe. excellent heel. heel has never come out.

order half size smaller than your shoe size.

Yeah that's right these shoes feel amazing.

Street shoe size 11.5
Evolve Pontas size 10.5 Painfully tight for bouldering hard sport
Evolve Pontas size 11 for just about everything including multipitch cracks.
Evolve Pontas size 11.5 for brutally long routes not involving too much face climbing.

Once the full size smaller breaks in and your feet adjust i.e. after bloody toe knuckles become caluses the shoes are great. They do stretch in the toe box when wet from sweat but overall they retain there same size.
The rubber lasts forever. evolv has a harder rubber than other brands and much more so than vibram rubber but they are still plenty sticky and much more durable. less resoling needed.
If you have a narrow heel these shoes might not fit you so well. I don't know since my heel is not narrow and they fit perfect. The velcro lasts loner than whats used on other brands. It'll last long enough to get them resoled at least once and still stick to itself after two lifetimes. The straps are more durable than other brands and won't break. THe rubber over the big toe for toe hooking is great but if you dont havea callus there it's going to hurt until you get used to it or they break in or both. They are notas narrow as the defy but narrow enough to climb thin cracks. I'd day once broken in they are medium stiffness. They edge perfectly and yet are soft enough for those few slab sections that tend to pop up every now and again. Compared to the Pontas Lace-ups they are not as stiff narrower in the toes and just all around more comfortable. The Pontas lace-up is pretty much a strictly steep wall shoe for micro edges. The Pontas micro edges great and is sensitive enough to feel what your doing but not so sensitive that your feet are going to hate you at the end of the day from being over worked. Since Theyre not leather theyre easy to clean without them shrinking ( may be a little tight after washing but put on for 5 min and your good to go). Guess that's it for now. Roommate needs the computer oh yeah wash with baking soda gets rid of the funk and smell people tent to comlain about but I say if your feet stink that bad it's not the shoes its your diet that needs to be changed.

I ordered these shoes based on my fit in other Evolv shoes, and was sorely disappointed. Whereas I wear a 39 in the Elektras, Evos, and Defys, I couldn't even get my foot in the 39, let alone climb in it.

When I did finally get the right size, the toe box was more angular and narrow than I've found other Evolv shoe models to be.

However, if the shoe fits, it makes for fun technical movements. It works great on super sheer edges and challenging boulder routes.

Like all shoes, its fit is relative to the wearer as one shoe may fit one person well, and another person terribly. But for me, these feel great. I wear a size 11 running shoe and after reading many reviews of this shoe, bought the same size in evolvs. The fit of the shoe is perfect for my foot, keeping the toes squished close together to provide for a nice, even weight on the tips. The sole itself is much thinner than I was used to as I had previously been using a fiveten entry level shoe with thick soles. At first, the shoe felt flimsy to me, but after using it on smaller foot-holds, tiny crystals and thin cracks, I now appreciate the sensitivity I get with this sole. The rubber is slightly less sticky than my fivetens but not so much that it has ever prevented me from sending a problem.

They also look stinkin cool!

Awesome shoes, fit like a glove now that i broke them in. I blew out the toe pretty fast, I seem to have that problem with the evolves.

I got these shoes early last summer and have found them to be great at everything except for cracks. They climb cracks well enough, but the Velcro doesn't hold up super well when jamming. The rubber is really sticky and seems to be durable enough. Also, you can pay to have your shoes resoled by Evolv themselves (I did that at the end of last summer and it worked out well). In short, get these shoes if you do a lot of face climbing and want to be able to get out of your shoes quickly. If you climb cracks, you might want to look at some slippers or lace-ups.