We all know that men and women are from different planets, but do those logistics bear any weight when it comes to choosing a climbing shoe?

Five-Ten Company, a climbing footwear manufacturer, went out on a limb late in 1995 with the first women-specific climbing shoe. Other officials from manufacturers like Boreal and La Sportiva claim they have shoes that will meet the needs of women climbers too, yet the shoes are not marketed as specific to women. Learning more about climbing footwear and how manufacturers view the foot is the way to start the decision-making.

Five-Ten

Five Ten Diamond

Karen t’Kint, sales manager for Five-Ten, said she was growing weary of watching women having to compromise when it came time to buy a pair of rock shoes. "They just didn’t have options," she said, "their only options were narrower lasted men's shoes, not shoes lasted specifically for them. Every climbing shoe designer recognizes that a precise fit enhances performance. Dead space is the enemy of precision." As the Diamond heads into its second market season, t’Kint said it has given that option to female climbers and has been successful on the sales floor. In fact, the footwear company has added a men’s version, called the Newton. Both versions retail for $148. While women's feet are not all the same, they generally share a number of characteristics that differ distinctly from men's feet. "Most women's arches are higher, their ankle bones are lower, they have lower-volume heels and a narrower fore-foot. The Diamond was designed to accommodate all of these uniquely feminine characteristics," she said.

On first look, the Diamond is an eye grabber, black quilted leather with a stealthy appearance. While some climbers don’t mind the black, it can get rather toasty on warm days. But t’Kint claims that the look followed a performance-driven design and the shoe is quite comfortable with an Aptec liner that has a super thin foam lining between the shoe and the liner. The shoe’s design encompasses a narrow heel, a higher arch, a low-volume instep and a side-exit heel seam that allows the Achilles area some breathing room. Diamonds are asymmetrical as well. The shoe has an "S Curve" lace system that, by offering more points of adjustment and thus minimizing dead space, further allows the shoe to hug the foot.

"The foot in general has a strange shape," t’Kint said. "With the curved lace system, the shoe can better conform to the foot and you can feel amore customized fit. That really makes a difference when you’re cranking on a hard route," she said. But, t’Kint said, there is no such thing as a climbing shoe that will do all things equally well. "Slippers are rarely comfortable on long routes, especially if any edging is involved and 'general purpose' shoes are seldom ideal for gyms because their stiff midsoles impair sensitivity. However, the Diamond is designed for as much versatility as possible. For example, Mia Axon uses them for bouldering contests, yet Steph Davis chooses them for long routes in Yosemite Valley," she said. The Diamond is built in U.S. women's sizes so it's pretty easy to find the right fit. "Most women drop one half size from their standard street shoe size. Ifyou want extra precision at the price of a little comfort, drop down a full size or size-and-one-half," she said.

Boreal

Boreal’s technical representative, Linh Nguyen, said he applauds Five-Ten’s designers of the Diamond, especially on the area of the shoearound the heel area. However, Nguyen said he feels Boreal’s line of climbing shoes offers a fit for every foot - men’s or women’s.

"The most popular shoe in our line, that women have really spoken highly of, is the Laser," he said. "It’s lower volume and extremely sensitive, with an unlined upper."

The Laser, he said, has a strong "cult" following among women climbers. Boreal chose not to import the Laser in 1997, a move that Nguyen said provoked some angry response among women climbers. It will be back for 1998 with a couple of slight cosmetic changes. Retailing for $133, it offers slip-lasted construction; slip-lasted shoes are made from a completed sock of a boot, to which the midsole and the outsole are glued. It offers more sensitivity than board-lasted shoes, which are more stiff as the uppers are built into the midsole of the shoe.

"In that respect, the Laser’s midsole is thinner which gives greater sensitivity," Nguyen said. "We have models of shoes built on wide lasts and narrow lasts; the Laser is a shoe built on the narrower last."

Nguyen said that while looking for a climbing shoe, a shop employee can be the best resource, "the retailers should see if your foot is wide or narrow and should have a wide selection of boots that fit each type of foot."

La Sportiva

La Sportiva Mythos

Like Boreal, La Sportiva doesn’t have a women specific shoe in its line, but that doesn’t stop the Mythos from being a super popular pick of women climbers, said La Sportiva sales manager Charlie Oliver.

"One of the things that La Sportiva has going for it is that in almost every model of our shoes, the uppers are designed so that there’s enough room to wrap around a wide foot or close down around a narrow foot," he said. "There are at least six to eight lasts for 12 models of shoes," Oliver said.

Lasts are a mold for a shoe. The Five-Ten Diamond, for example, is built on a women’s-specific last.

The Mythos is also a slip-lasted shoe and retails for $137.50. It’s also unlined, a feature that Oliver said makes the shoe "break-in" and really grow to fit around men’s or women’s feet.

"Generally, women have a lower-volume foot — that’s only generally," Oliver said. "In rock shoes, we fit tight so the differences between men’s and women’s shoes isn’t so much an issue."

Hiking boots, however, are another issue. Oliver said that foot bend, arch length, total length, width and volume of the foot are critical for hiking boot fit and La Sportiva has incorporated women’s lasted hikers into the line because of this.

"We are very supportive of women’s specific footwear. We started looking into a women’s rock shoe about four years ago, but we looked at it and decided that we already make a shoe that women really think is great — the Mythos," Oliver said.

Women climbers should be picky when it comes to choosing rock shoes. The Diamond has done us a service in that its presence draws a lot of attention to our needs as women climbers. If you have an allegiance to a non-women specific shoe, obviously stay with what works for you. But, the introduction of the Diamond, which is not a man’s shoe with a girlie paint job, makes the outdoor industry take an even more serious look at our needs.

All feet are different. Take your foot's advice when you go to your shop or to a demo day.

— Kristen Carpenter, Mountain Zone contributor