UKH

Hi, all. I got these Rock&Run Red Chilli shoes back in 2005 while at university, had a very on/off involvement with climbing since then, from zero climbs in a few calendar years, to weekly gym and several weeks outdoors per year.

[pictures available, can I post a link?]

I am not a high level climber and never will be, outdoors I mostly boulder up to easy V1s and solo some simple trad routes like the sort you find on Little Tryfan and the like.

The shoes fit well still, rubber feels quite hard and plasticky but it isn't worn through at all. I've never tried other shoes than these before.

I would try some rentals in the gym but of course we can't do that for a while yet. I can climb outdoors, though, at the moment, given my location.

15 years old, moderate usage, low ambition, what do you reckon - worth trying some new ones? The main thing I'm wondering about is the rubber, if it has gone hard and lost its grip, perhaps. Would it be expected that shoes of that age will have perished, or can they still be fine?

Cheers

If your ambitions are modest and your current shoes fit well what sort of "benefit" are you looking for? If I was climbing modest grades I would not buy "sticky" shoes they are not very hard wearing. Comfort would be my main criteria and performance would not be a major consideration. Climbers usually upgrade their shoes precisely because they want to climb harder (that is the typical definition of benefit) so it's difficult to know exactly what you mean.

Al

Take a file or a grinder to the soles of your shoes and see whether that improves stickyness. Often only the outermost layer of the rubber becomes hard and brittle.

Otherwise, simply get them resoled.

In short. No.

That might be a bit extreme in the first instance. Maybe a good wash with some hot, soapy water instead.

It is what I did a couple of years ago when trying to reactivate my very first climbing shoes just for fun, some lavender/yellow ankle height Hanwag abomination from the 1980s! 

Hot water will get rid of dust, but won't help a lot if the rubber has lost its solvent content.

CB

edit: If you really want to wash them, put them into a cloth bag and chuck them into the washing machine!