La SportivaWomens Solution Rock Climbing Shoes

I highly recommend this shoe if you have been climbing probably at least a year or so, have pretty good footwork, and are ready to graduate to a more aggressive shoe. I’ve loved these from the first time I climbed in them and highly recommend.(For context - I use these indoors and outdoors, for sport (lead) routes up to 5.11a/b or easier, I generally prefer face climbs but do overhangs as well.)- Good for long toes and wide-ish feet - I have long toes and I’ve found that the toe box in other brands can be so short that my second toe bends and the knuckle sticks up in a very painful way. Still happens with this shoe but less-so, and the material is forgiving so I haven’t had any major pain/issues.- Break in - I didn’t even break these guys in before throwing them on, brand new, for some outdoor leads - it went fine with mild, tolerable pain, on longer climbs as expected. They get more comfortable after a few sessions and you can tolerate them better on longer climbs over time.- Size - in the katakis and finales I sized one half size down form my normal street shoe size (6.5 down to 6), but I had to go back up to my street shoe size (37.5/ 6.5) for these guys. It was too painful in the smaller size - had I been more committed to breaking in it might have been fine, but I have no regrets. These haven’t stretched in any problematic ways since I purchased them and I feel the fit is still snug.- Heel cup - doesn’t dig in too much for short uses. But does get uncomfortable (tolerable) by the end of a longer climb, and by the end of a longer climbing session. I haven’t had it pop off on me when heel-hooking, great for heel hooks.- Strap - my other two shoes had laces and I was reluctant to get shoes without laces, but I’ve found the design of this strap still allows for a good snug fit across my foot.- Toe/foot work - FANTASTIC in my opinion for edging and teeny tiny footholds. Footholds that would be very difficult to use in other shoes are much easier to use with these. Easy to actively pull yourself into the wall from your toes due to the shape and material.- Color - I appreciate a female shoe that finally isn’t pink, purple, or teal. Just saying.BEGINNERS: I do not necessarily recommend this as the best first climbing shoe for beginners - you’ll want time to get used to the feel of a climbing shoe. This is not a shoe you’ll wear between climbs - it’s one you’ll want to take off once you’re on the ground (or sometimes while you’re being lowered 😂 (due to discomfort). Until you have precise foot-eye coordination, you’ll probably be missing out on some of the benefits of this shoe, so a less expensive beginner shoe is probably a better investment. All that said, if your “psych” is high and you’re ready to jump all in to climbing and want an amazing shoe - go for it! You’ll be great!

This is my second pair of the shoes and I found the sizing to match my street shoe size. Great shoes for the gym or outdoors but beware that the heel rubber is fairly thick and makes heel hooks a little tricky. I also own these shoes in the comp series and the heels on the comp show are a lower profile rubber.

Very comfortable! Worth paying more for a comfortable and high performance shoe:).

Great climbing shoes highly recommend getting these

So I'd consider myself an intermediate sport climber (I climb mostly in the 5.10s with a few 5.11a). This is my fifth pair of shoes and I've had them for about a month of 2-3x a week gym climbing. I ended up trying them on 'just for fun' while looking to buy something significantly less aggressive, but fell in love with them and took them home.For context: I've gone through two pair of 5.10 Rogue VC (I actually bought men's rather than women's - yes, they do turn your feet blue) prior to this and two pairs of Evolve Electra as what I started out with. So going from those to something this aggressive was a huge jump.So to start this review, please be sure you look at the picture of the inner edge profile of the shoe.. This I think does a better job of showing what this shoe is about and helps show what I mean in my comments.Reasons I love this shoe:* The big toe on the shoe extends out to a bit of a point of hard rubber. This turned a couple narrow pockets I was dealing with from impossible footholds in the Rogue's to relatively easy ones in these. It's not the most comfortable thing in the world, but it's very effective and I was immediately able to blast up a route I was working which I had previously been stuck on, due to now having a foothold I couldn't previously use.* The difference in ease-of-edging between these and my Rogues, particularly with the inner front part of the shoe on small holds, is dramatically noticeable - especially on holds smaller than about 1/2". There were multiple moves that involved high-stepping onto tiny holds in some of the routes I was working that suddenly got humorously easier to stay on the wall when I put these on.* For something this aggressive they're actually not uncomfortable on the wall - the toe box is actually more comfortable than most other things I've tried on, and the unique holding mechanism (which is almost like a slipper with a lace velcroed over it) works wonderfully well for keeping the shoe in place.* The shoe has a hooked toe that actually dips in and makes it easier to do toe hooks as well as just to use your leg to pull your weight. For me it's been amazingly useful - especially for wide and high moves.* The shoe heel-hooks like a dream. The heel-rubber is delightfully sticky, and the heel shape is about as perfect for hooking as I could imagine. I'm still discovering just how much I can stick with these, because it's so far out of the range of my prior shoes.Reasons you might not want this shoe:Every reason I have to say 'you might not want this shoe' is going to hold for pretty much all hyper-aggressive shoes as a matter of degree - please note these criticisms are from the point of view of someone who has mostly climbed in beginner/intermediate shoes and who test-drove about four pairs of more aggressive shoes before settling on this one.* So the shoe is actually significantly more arched and aggressive than it looks in promotional pictures. Also, the toe-hook actually extends to the toe so if you try to stand on a flat surface with these shoes you've got the awkward sensation of your arch trying to push up while lifting your foot, while when you step down it tries to force your foot concave due to your toe pushing up. Basically, trying to walk flat in these things varies between awkward and painful - a bit worse than some of the other aggressive shoes I tried on, at least out of the box. I was never one who took my shoes off after every route climbed, but these don't even go on until I'm tied in and come off immediately after I'm down. I'm hoping the shoe and I will adjust to each other in time, but right now they're coming off every route. I can't imagine trying to hike multiple pitches in these things.* The fit for the heel on these shoes, while better than several other aggressive shoes I tried, still cuts in a bit at the back of my ankle near the top. Now, this has improved notably after a few wearings, but if you look how far the heel is expected to jut out from the ankle realize that it is exactly what it looks like and there isn't terribly much stretch when you put them on. The same bit that's awesome for heel-hooks results in quite sore ankles, and requires a very careful touch when pulling them on/off to avoid making the issue even worse (the pull tabs are VERY well positioned to help with this however).* The wonderful toe-hook on the inner edge means that foot placement is suddenly far more important than it would be if it were just a flat edge - place it right, and your grip is amazing, put it 2cm the wrong way, and it's worse than a flat shoe. This doesn't bother me now, but I wouldn't have wanted to deal with it earlier in my climbing career.* They're expensive - you can see that. The rubber is also sticky as heck and heavily shaped - amazing for grabbing things on a wall, but making me question the shoe's shelf-life.Conclusions:* Like all aggressive shoes, this is really not good for early climbers - and will be a lot of pain for no gain. The things that make these shoes awesome (small pocket toe-holds, tiny foot chips, difficult heel-hooks, uses for toe-hooks) won't even show up on most routes until the higher 5.10s / lower 5.11s - until then you really get nothing for your discomfort.* It might, however, be a very good 'my first aggressive shoe' if you're willing to spend the money owing to its excellence at all the things an aggressive shoe is supposed to do combined it's surprising comfort on the wall.

it's ok.if you're like me and tie shoes very tightly, shoe laces will rip eventually (both of mine did and I'm getting new shoes as I'm typing).