In the nineties, La Sportiva had a black vegan climbing shoe. It was quite good, but perhaps a bit ahead of its time as it didn't last that long in their range. It was similar to the Kendo in shape and style, just black and made of non animal products.
Does anyone remember what it was called? It's not important, I just can't for the life of me remember, even though I had a couple of pairs, and it's really bugging me.
Sportive Taos. Never had any but do remember them. The popular sportiva shoes from the 90s were kendos, mythology and cobras which were slippers like ninjas.
In reply to Climber_Bill: I had a couple of pairs of the Tao back in't day. Good shoe, decent fit and rubber but the black colour was bad news in hot sunny weather. Rather smelly iirc.
I had a couple of pairs of those too. Great performance when new, but they had another innovative design feature: the rand didn't overlap under the sole, sole & rand were just glued together edge to edge. Briefly.
Hi Richard, just seen your post. Wow, takes me back to North Stack Wall in 1990. I tested a few pairs of Tao's for DMM at the time. Was happy enough to trust them with my life on those scary climbs. Happy memories, thanks.
Ps. notice you're down here at the moment, have a wonderful trip.
Lorraine McCall began her attempt today at a continuous, self-powered round of the Grahams, a four-month tour of upland Scotland combining walking and bikepacking. If successful, she'll be the first person that we know of to do it.
