Climbing shoes. That’s what we were talking about in Part 1, as I recall. Let’s continue our discussion. First, we’ll go through all of the shoe brands and models that were worn on the wall during the first four hours of qualifying climbs. Then we’ll go through the list of shoe brands and models that made it to the Men’s and Women’s Open Finals. Beyond that, I can tell you which shoes made the podium (the top three places in the Open Finals for both Men and Women). The purpose of all of this is so that we can potentially say something about which climbing shoes you should be investing in! Sound like a plan?
There were nine different shoe brands that were used on the competition wall for the 2019 MBC. They were La Sportiva, Scarpa, Five Ten, Evolv, Black Diamond, Mad Rock, Tenaya, So Ill, and Butora. Let’s break that down some more.
La Sportiva models used (with the number of competitors wearing them in parentheses after each) were the Skwamas (6), Solutions (6), Testarossas (5), Miuras (2), Tarantulaces (2), Tarantulas (2), Maverinks (2), TC Pros (3), Katana Laces (2), Katanas (1), Finales (3), and Futuras (1). Scarpa models used were the Instincts (12), Vapor V’s (5), Dragos (2), Furias (1), and Unknown (2). Five Ten models used were the Team 5.10 (5), Anasazis (3), Anasazi Pros (3), Moccasyms (3), Black Wings (2), and Unknown (1). Those were the top three brands used. Amongst the other brands, various models of Evolv (8), Black Diamond (4), Mad Rock (1), Tenaya (1), So Ill (2), and Butora (1) were used.
Some competitors warmed up in one pair of climbing shoes and did their serious climbing attempts in another, so the number of pairs of shoes counted does not accurately reflect the number of competitors. This was interesting to me because I am one who needs to warm up in the shoes I’m going to do my serious climbing in and if I switch shoes, it kind of messes me up for a bit (not to mention, my actual competition shoes are “cold” for that bit as well).
So which shoes made it to the Open Finals? Can you guess? Go ahead and comment! I’d love to hear which shoes you think made it to the Finals! We’ll save that for Part 3 of this series, which should be out tomorrow. Stay tuned and make sure you check back!
CLIMBING 4 THE REST OF US 