I had my La Sportiva Mythos, which I bought in 1994, resoled for the sixth time last November, but this April the tongue came out of the right shoe after a 28-pitch day. I'm wearing them for training now, but I climbed a few thousand pitches all over the world in those shoes. I’d say I got my money’s worth when I bought those shoes 14 years ago. They’ve been good friends.
Resoles Are Inexpensive
Good climbing shoes are expensive. Resoles are inexpensive. I can't understand why so many climbers buy cheap shoes that are basically throwaway shoes—use 'em, they fall apart, toss 'em. Not eco-friendly at all. It’s much better to get your shoes resoled. You’ll be surprised how much life they have left in them.
Don’t Buy New
As your shoes slowly wear out, it’s tempting to stash them in the garage with your other old gear and buy a new pair of the latest super-duper rock shoes. The best thing to do is to drop them off or ship them to a reputable climbing shoe resoler and have a new pair of sticky rubber resoles slapped on them. The cost? Usually around $30 for new half-soles plus shipping back to you. That’s about a quarter of the cost of new shoes.
Resoles Are Eco-Friendly
Besides giving new life to your shoes, it’s also ecological friendly to get them repaired and keep them climbing. Most good rock shoes are made to last. That’s what you paid good money for, so it makes sense to fix them. It also keeps them out of your closet as well as the landfill. In this increasingly throwaway world, we need to think about reusing our climbing gear when we safely can to reduce the energy used to construct new shoes, to ship them around the world, and to simply reduce waste. Resoling your rock shoes is one way to do that. Plus your wallet will thank you for resoles.
