found drama

After a two years and about 200 hours ¹ of use, my Mad Rock Flashes climbing shoes finally gave up the ghost. They wore clear through at the toes. There was no saving them. The shoes had served me well and had always been pretty comfortable ², so with that in mind, I was sad to see them go. But after two years and 200 hours, I’d also proven to myself that I was committed enough to this sport that it was worth it to me to get what I wanted this time around.

So I went ahead and picked up a pair of Defy rock shoes by Evolv. So far? Loving these shoes after a couple of climbing sessions.

Coming from the Mad Rocks, I’m learning how nice it can be to have a stiffer sole. There seems to be a bit more grip and support in these shoes that I never even knew I was missing. Supposedly the synthetic material does not stretch – so the way it fits in the store is the way it will fit a year from now. The synthetic material definitely breathes well.

As far as the fit of the shoe goes, it seems to be slightly narrower in the toe than the Mad Rocks were but not so narrow as to be uncomfortable. Also, the Defys seem to run a full size smaller than the comparable Mad Rock shoes. I wore an 11 Mad Rock, stepped down to a 10.5 in the Defys and then after getting onto the wall discovered that it made more sense to step down even further to a size 10.

But so far, quite comfortable and very recommended.

1. Yes, I keep track. If you’re a regular here, you probably already knew that.[↩]
2. Where by “comfortable” I mean “extremely tight like I would want them to be but not so much so that I feel like a 19th century Chinese concubine”.[↩]

About Rob Friesel