Wasabi Climbing Shoe

I found these for $25 on steepandcheap.com, just blew through the toe of another shoe so I said what the hell. I bought a 39.5, which seemed to fit pretty well. I wear a 7 in most evolvs, 7 in 5.10 and 37.5-38.5 in Sportivas. They are very very comfortable, I can wear these around for a long time and they aren't sized super loose. I like these shoes for warming up, gym climbing and long, easier pitches. I have bouldered V6 and climbed 5.11 in these shoes, but the shoes made it that much harder. The rubber sucks, they are way too soft, and the toes are way too high profile, and the velcro closures don't really work...but, for $25, the were a real value...i would feel terrible if i paid $95 bucks for these though, yuck. Great if you're looking for a comfy shoe for climbing easier things that is cheap.

HORRIBLE shoe. They fell apart in less than 2 months. The rubber on the soles are completly split. Velcro straps came off. They also smell rotten. I have to keep them in a sealable container, or they stink up my closet too much. They were decent for climbing though. Edged good and smeared well. My complaints were : durability, odor, stiffness (they're too thin).

It sounds like the guy below me got screwed by the store he bought them from. They were probably $70 'cause they were the older version with the bad velcro. They probably even threw two different sized shoes in the box or someone must've mixed and matched.

I got my pair at the start of the season. Blue Ridge Mountain Sports didn't have any in stock so I sized with a pair of splitters. Turns out the Wasabis are pretty damn tight. I molded in my oven and started hitting my school's gym twice a week.

Since then, I've climbed all over Jersey and at West Point and the Gunks with them. I love their ability to stand on virtually anything. They're easy to pull on (thank you giant loops!) and slide off.

I've also brought them on hikes for when I find random boulders to give a quick go.

An all around great shoe that excels at edging.

Mine are probably too small for me, that's the only thing. I've taken to rappelling barefoot; but, my climbing partner wears Mythos and does the same.

I have to say, I was climbing in Hoboken (found a pile of overhanging, loose rock) a few days ago and found even more reasons to love the shoe :) I couldn't feel like fingers or my toes; but, every food placement was solid. Wish I could say the same for the rock. Broke away in my hands more often than not.

Moral of the story:

Buy the Wasabis. It's hot.

I bought these on clearance for about $70. I only tried on the left foot, and while I was at the crags I tried to put on the right. It would not go on, and upon further inspection was about a 1/4" smaller than the other. They are climbing shoes so I put up with it, and after about a month long painful excruciating break in (7-8 heavy uses in the gym) they evened out. I wanted to send them back to montrail but my friends told me "they don't make them anymore." I said "great, they'll have to gimme an equivalent pair." - "no montrail doesn't make climbing shoes anymore." haha...

What else.... Oh the velcro is useless. The second you arch your feet, walk, or breathe 1 or more of the 6 straps comes undone. So I cut off all the straps. if you're not going to work you're gone right? And they reek, I know I know- they are climbing shoes. but these are on another level. It's also due to them not being breathable at all. Montrail could've thrown in some antimicrobial but one of my climbing mentors tells me it's a european thing.

So anyway I still use them I don't know why. I think I use them because they are my only souvenirs from my 3 week long climbing road trip. They are like slippers now; no straps, and the tongue folded over like soccer cleats, smell and all- After writing this review I've realized they've grown on me like the wet mutt that follows you home. I will be generous and change the rating from 2 to 3. Keep in mind I still believe 2 would be generous.

I bought these shoes on sale from EMS and the only size they had i thought for sure that they would be to small. Once i got them in i still thought...to small... but after checking the return policy to see if i could do the heat treatment and climb one time in them and still return them i gave them a shot. The heat treatment is strangely fun. it seemed to help stretch the shoes a very small amount. i took them out to the nearest crag and gave em a shot. Freakin awesomsly sticky, excellent precision, and so far no problem with the velcro. I would deffinitly recomend these for sport climbs and bouldering, if they are sized like mine (43 street, 42 miuras, 41 wasabi). smearing is probably the only thing that these weren't excellent on, but if you could find a small pebble or knob, they were fine. will deffinitly update if i start having trouble with these.