When should you get your climbing shoes resoled?

Sun, 30 Jun 2019 16:41:22 GMT

This is a question I get asked a lot, but firstly lets cover some shoe anatomy so we get a better overall understanding.

What is the rand of a climbing shoe?

The rand of a climbing shoe is the supporting rubber that is around the sides and toe of your shoe, which the climbing rubber is attached to. This layer of rubber wraps around from the top to the bottom of the shoe to help maintain the shoe shape and characteristics.

I would always prefer not to do a rand repair on any pair of climbing shoes as changing the rand cap has the potential to affect the feel of the shoe and decreases the number of times the shoe can be resoled, thus decreasing the life of the shoe. Additionally, the rand rubber is softer than the climbing rubber and not designed to be climbed on. If you wear through the climbing rubber and don’t get the shoes resoled at that stage, you will then wear through the rand in a much shorter time than fresh climbing rubber. Unfortunately, however, 90% of the shoes I resole require new rand cap because they have been worn too thin.

Here you can see this is the perfect time to resole your shoes. The climbing rubber is worn down, exposing the rand rubber but the climber has stopped climbing in them and therefore not worn down the rand. This type of resole is a lot easier and quicker (and cheaper!) and the shoe naturally retains its shape and feel.

a42dea46

When should you get your climbing shoes resoled?