Rock shoes, like everything else, eventually wear out. The more you climb, the faster your shoes get trashed. Most active climbers easily wear out two pairs of soles in a year. I know some hotshot climbers who wear out a dozen pairs a year. They usually keep their newer shoes for outdoor cranking and hard redpoints. Their older shoes are relegated to doing laps on routes or training on artificial walls. Most of us though don’t have the luxury of being sponsored by a rock shoe company and getting new stylish pairs in the mail every month. We have to look after the shoes that we bought with hard-earned cash.
Sloppy Footwork Wears Shoes Fast
How you climb will affect how fast your rock shoe wears out and how and where the sole wears out. Sloppy footwork wears not only the toes of the shoe, but also trashes the rand, that piece of rubber that wraps around the shoe above the sole. When you climb, especially if you’re a novice, strive for precise footwork. Place your foot on a hold, don’t drag it across the rock. Climb gracefully like a monkey and dance on your feet like a cat. For this reason, climbing shoes are often called pies de gato or cat’s feet in Spain.
Wear Rock Shoes Only For Climbing
Try to wear your rock shoes only on the rock. If you can hike to the crag in them, then the shoes probably don’t fit you properly. A good-fitting pair of rock shoes are painful on the feet if you wear them too long, let along hike around in them. Another reason not to wear them on trails is that the soles will not only get dirty, but pieces of rock and grit grind into them and impact the rubber quality as well as the quality of your climbing experience. Lastly, dirty soles don’t stick to the rock as well as clean ones. Most climbers clean dirt and dust off the sole before climbing so they get maximum adhesion.
