Bandit Climbing Shoe popular

I purchased the shoes about a month ago, moving from a less aggressive model (Evolv royale) and love them so far. I get great precision from them, and a little extra strength since I recently had to have my right foot surgically rebuilt (broke 9 bones :X) recommend these shoes to all my friends, with the only cut-down being the slacky, saggy heel area. other than that I definitely say these are quickly becoming my favorites. also, just saw Adventure 16 is selling them half off right now, at least in San Diego. wish I had waited a few weeks to get them for 65.00 haha.

I just retired my year-old bandit with 2 gaping holes on the toes just this weekend after sliding off a slab problem (granite wall, no less)made me realize that there’s an end to all things good. This is my ode for this incredible climbing partner. This is a stiff shoe so it provides good support, esp. in the midarch but for new climbers this translates to painful tight fit. Now that I’ve climbed for a year, this tight fit translates to precision edging and just awesome support. I really, really like how surgical this shoe feels, I can slip the pointy rand in virtually any crack, ledge, micro edges, crystal, shelf, hold, you name it and it’ll stick. Oftentimes in desperation I’d just jam the bottom sole into the wall and voila…it sticks. Amazing rubber. My rand (toe) blew at around the 11th month. I climb 3x / wk at gym and 1 x outdoors on big walls. This shoe feels a half size smaller than the stated size. I wear street size 9.5 and I got the bandit at same 9.5, but was tortured for the first 3 mos. My toes were curled and extremely jammed, which resulted in me taking it off on routes longer than 5 mins and under heat. It doesn’t stretch, although the shoe will mold your feet like 2nd skin after enough sweating. Buy half size bigger if you’re new and buy street size if you want performance. This shoe is rated intermediate climbing.

Definitely delivers in spades on what I want from a shoe - precision. The only reason it doesn't get a five is due to the heel, which is baggy. This is not a real problem, however.

These shoes have survived 6 months of climbing 4 times per week with nearly no signs of wear. They stretch very little, so the initial fit is very accurate to what it will be.

Take the warnings about the smell seriously though, these shoes really build up a funk. It gets to the point that everyone within 10 feet can smell your feet. Thankfully, two or three runs through the washing machine fixes that.

Really though, these shoes are great and stick to just about everything. Buy without reservations, just keep them dry as much as you can to ward off the smell!

EDIT: At just under 8 months of use, the toe ripped out on these, rendering them completely useless. Shame, becaue they really were good shoes. And really, I am not kidding about the smell. It's terrible!

These shoes are definitely great. I like to size them the same or half a size up and use them for longer moderates but even sized up they work great up to 5.10 in the gunks. A little (slightly) stiffer midsole than the Kaos or Talon which I find to be nice. They have also endured pretty well in the cracks... good buy!