Awesome...but...

By Jesse Ranked #168 - Rock Climbing Shoes September 30, 2009

I've been out of climbing for a while. Back in the day I used to climb in Five Ten Dragons and Boreal Matrix's, both shoe sized aggressively tight. It was surreal to me to have a shoe that I could pull hard on 10d/11a in the gym and not have to slip them off as soon as I hit the ground. The upper is super soft and stretches nicely. The rubber grips, well like stealth rubber always does, solidly. I tried to go cheap at first and bough a pair of Evolv's before this but the rubber just wasn't up to what I have grown used to with Five Ten and I quickly snatched these up.

Now the bad:
-stink, these shoes do not breath at all, and your feet will SWEAT!! I use cedar blocks in them to help afterwards, but they are still not allowed inside my climbing bag (I use the water bottle pocket on the outside for them)
-although exceedingly comfortable, I wish I had sized just a hlaf size down, after 2 months of 3-4 day a week gym climbing the rubber around the crease between my tows and top of my foot is starting to pull away, I think due to the ammount of pressure put on the spot when i climb
-the laces are WAY to long, both the regular and elastic are SUPER long. I got around this by cutting the elastics and burning the ends together about 2 inches above where the are tight on my foot, this way i can get in and out easily, but am not worried about stepping on my laces.

Overall, I love these shoes, they have there foibles for sure, but the comfort combined with the sweet rubber really make them my fave all around shoe.

View Details: Five Ten Siren Lace-up Climbing Shoe - Women's

Helpful Votes: 1 Yes | 0 No