What's wrong with laces?

By Michael Ranked #496 - Rock Climbing Shoes June 2, 2009

I bought these shoes thinking I would try something new after having a bad experience with some other approach shoes. Upon inspection, they look very durable and well constructed, but the "zonal closure system" just didn't seem to work out for me. Here are the issues I found: (1) The tongue is sewn to the shoe on the medial side (the side where the feet touch together). This doesn't allow for a whole lot of adjustment. While it keeps the tongue in place, for my foot, it was in the wrong place, causing some uncomfortable pressure points. (2) The top strap doesn't seem quite long enough. I have pretty narrow feet and I could barely tighten the strap down. In fact, getting the hook at the end of the strap into the loop on the shoes seemed like much more work than it was worth. (3) The lower laces were difficult to adjust. Once again, because the upper strap makes shoe adjustment difficult, it is hard to open the shoe up enough to grab the laces to tighten them down, and they don't slide through the eyelets very easily.

Unfortunately I can't say much more about the shoe, as I wore them around the house for a few hours and got so frustrated with the closure system that I decided to return them. Other than the closure system, they were quite comfortable.

View Details: Vasque Equalizer Shoe - Men's

Helpful Votes: 1 Yes