Mountain Project Logo

Idea for a website to help buying shoes

Original Post
EthanC · · Bay Area, CA · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 253

I'm not sure how to do this in terms of the actual website design and programming, but as far as I've seen while looking, this idea doesn't exist and I think it would be pretty useful to climbers.

What I was thinking is a site where you enter in the climbing shoes you've owned or tried on and maybe a couple remarks on the fit. With enough people entering in their shoes, you'd be able to generate a matrix of shoes that might fit and the size you might need to make it easier to buy shoes online with confidence.

For example I own Muiras in a 41.5, Anasazis in a 8.5, Newtons in an 11 and Defys in a 10.5. If someone else knew they had been wearing Defys in a 10.5, they'd have an idea how other shoes would fit. Not perfect but you get the idea.

I've had the idea for a while but I'm not sure what to do with it. Anyone else think it'd be useful?

EDIT: I'm doing this

I started talking to a programmer/climber I'm friends with and we're gonna start. Just so we have some data to work with, if anyone wants to contribute, here is a link to a google form.

goo.gl/forms/MxK6kAPkyx

Edit two, as a coda: I've had a tremendous number of responses, which I really appreciate. I was optimistic but as much as I've tried to tease apart the data, the questions are perhaps subjective enough and coupled with people's subjective nature of how shoes fit, and a lack of enough data for good statistics... It's hard to make any reasonable conclusions about the data. If anyone is interested in looking at the survey responses, let me know and I can email it to you or post them somewhere.

Thanks for indulging me everyone, I guess this is harder than I thought.

Kevin Neville · · Oconomowoc, WI · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 15

I've had the same idea and think it would be very useful.

Jacob Smith · · Seattle, WA · Joined Aug 2013 · Points: 230

It would be useful for sure, having to shove shoes on my weirdly shaped feet in the non-virtual world has been a huge hold up for me in wanting to try new shoe brands. most people are basically limited to what REI will carry.

you would need a huge database for it to be useful though, and until you accomplished that there would be limited impetus for people to contribute.

EthanC · · Bay Area, CA · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 253

I think climbers are generally pretty willing to help out other climbers, a few hundred data points and it would start to get useful. I can probably personally badger a hundred climbers.

amarius · · Nowhere, OK · Joined Feb 2012 · Points: 20

Love it!
One addition, perhaps, to help folks getting into climbing - add tracing/picture of person's foot to narrow down choices even more.

Larry · · SoAZ · Joined Jan 2006 · Points: 50

It would be useful to have an online exchange for people with differently sized feet, where people could offer the one shoe that doesn't fit and look for one that does.

EthanC · · Bay Area, CA · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 253

I started talking to a programmer/climber I'm friends with and we're gonna start. Just so we have some data to work with, if anyone wants to contribute, here is a link to a google form.

goo.gl/forms/MxK6kAPkyx

Any feedback is welcome!

I am not sure how helpful I could make this to someone who doesn't own any climbing shoes, but if someone can find one pair of shoes that fits at REI or somewhere, they could then take that and look for other shoes online. I might add a response at some point about shoe width and heel size, but I wanted to limit the data to start.

EthanC · · Bay Area, CA · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 253

That's a good point. I just tried to add some more flexibility to the responses. Thanks!

Jo Mer · · Eugene, OR · Joined Jun 2014 · Points: 104
ethanfromwildohio wrote:here is a link to a google form.
Love this idea! I do some work with infographics, and would love to find a cool way to display the information that you gather! I threw together a quick form, but then saw that you already made one. PM me if you and your programmer want to share your data and collaborate on this!

Also, rather than gathering the climber's gender, can you add a spot for each shoe's 'gender' style? Many of us wear shoes of both styles!
EthanC · · Bay Area, CA · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 253

Hopefully people specify in the shoe description but I've received enough responses I don't want to start adding things because then I wouldn't have it for half the data. When I do it for real I'm going to import a database of shoes and you'll be able to find the specific shoe so it won't be ambiguous.

cnadel · · San Francisco, CA · Joined Feb 2013 · Points: 5

I know a calculator of this type exists out there already... I remember it being kind of tough to search for but it does indeed exist.

Here's a site with some info to get you started, though.

rockrun.com/wp/rock-shoe-si…

edit: bananafingers.com/uk has a so called 'Shoeculator' that does these calculations

highaltitudeflatulentexpulsion · · Colorado · Joined Oct 2012 · Points: 35

I see so many people wearing shoes that don't fit. Will they be contributing?

Beean · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2014 · Points: 0

Could this potentially be expanded to include boots? That'd be rad.

tomW · · Unknown Hometown · Joined May 2011 · Points: 10

First, I think it's a great idea and I hope you do it. I have a hard time finding climbing shoes that properly fit.

Second, I think there are other groups of people on the internet would be willing to pay just so they could look at the foot pictures :p

EthanC · · Bay Area, CA · Joined Jun 2013 · Points: 253
nicelegs wrote:I see so many people wearing shoes that don't fit. Will they be contributing?
Definitely something to worry about. I'm hoping the multiple options on fit will help alleviate that. Maybe have some option about selecting a skill level or something.
Altered Ego · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jul 2008 · Points: 0

This is insane.

20 kN · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Feb 2009 · Points: 1,346

I think it would be useful, but with some limiting factors. The problem is that different people have different foot shapes, and different shoes have different toe boxes to account for these different shapes. Some shoes have symmetrical toe boxes, others have semi-asymmetrical, and many have asymmetrical. If I have a foot that requires a symmetrical toe box, and you have one that requires an asymmetrical shoe size, it's possible we would both wear the same size street shoes but completely different climbing shoes. Further, if I switch to a shoe that does not conform to my foot as well as it does to your foot, I might have to go with a larger size even though we might both have the same foot length.

RockinOut · · NY, NY · Joined May 2010 · Points: 100

You mean like the Shoe Fitr website that allows you to compare shoes by length, width and volume? Click on show me how it fits

amarius · · Nowhere, OK · Joined Feb 2012 · Points: 20
20 kN wrote:I think it would be useful, but with some limiting factors. The problem is that different people have different foot shapes, and different shoes have different toe boxes to account for these different shapes. Some shoes have symmetrical toe boxes, others have semi-asymmetrical, and many have asymmetrical. If I have a foot that requires a symmetrical toe box, and you have one that requires an asymmetrical shoe size, it's possible we would both wear the same size street shoes but completely different climbing shoes. Further, if I switch to a shoe that does not conform to my foot as well as it does to your foot, I might have to go with a larger size even though we might both have the same foot length.
All very good points. Perhaps that is the reason behind the suggestion to include tracing/photo of wearer's foot?
Rob Powers · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Dec 2014 · Points: 0

I think this is a great idea for a website as I have been dealing with this very issue for the past couple years. I feel like I'm never able to go into a shop and find a size in the shoe I want, and I'm always hesitant to pull the trigger buying them online. A website like this would make things a lot easier. I ended up putting in the entries from my quiver of shoes just now. One suggestion for improvement that may be hard logistically at this point, is to make some sort of ID for the people that are giving you data entries so that if they ever want to add another style of shoe, they don't have to re-enter all the same information over again (and possibly skew your data).

Kent Richards · · Unknown Hometown · Joined Jan 2009 · Points: 81

I can imagine applying machine learning to classify foot shapes & make predictions on shoe fits based on user-supplied data.

Take a photo of your feet, computer analyzes photo and recommends shoes / sizes.

Users rate the "predictions", and the app learns from the feedback.

Guideline #1: Don't be a jerk.

Climbing Gear Discussion
Post a Reply to "Idea for a website to help buying shoes"

Log In to Reply

Join the Community

Create your FREE account today!
Already have an account? Login to close this notice.

Get Started.