7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Decent pair of shoes, March 13, 2010
This review is from: Mad Rock Men's Trickster Two-Strap Velcro (Apparel)
I bought these shoes because I wanted something better than the rental shoes at my gym. The rubber is decent. I'm able to stand on chips and smaller holds fairly well, but there are some big holds that the shoe just slips right off of. It might be the nature of the hold, but I expected to be able to stand fairly well on it. Smearing is fairly good.
Heel hooking is very good. There's just a huge piece of rubber on your heel that seems to mold around the hold.
I wear size 10.5 street shoe and I bought 10.5 for these shoes. At first they were pretty uncomfortable, but as I climbed a bit more, it became more tolerable. I have slight toe curl wearing these shoes.
My only major qualm about these shoes is the loops seem to make it very hard to loosen the shoes to take off. It's a slight annoyance but when you've just done a really tough climb and your hands are weak, it's annoying to have to use any dexterity you have left just to loosen the shoes.
All in all, a very decent pair of shoes. I would recommend it to any beginner/intermediate who wants an obnoxious checker design over the flash :P
EDIT
More info on the rubber...
The rubber is definitely finicky. There will be times where I can stick to the wall like a gecko with smearing but when there's a giant foothold that's not textured, I slip right off. There just seems to be such a fine line between grip and no grip that I didn't even experience with rental shoes. My friend who climbs in Mad Rock Flash's experiences the same differences in grippiness. Something to do with the Science Friction rubber I guess. So overall it still is a good shoe for those looking to upgrade from rentals, it's still annoying to have to deal with finicky rubber.
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