Adidas/Five Ten

A recent experience that turned me off Adidas for good: bought a pair of guide tennies in the winter and left them in the box for a wall next fall. Lo and behold both soles delaminate on me after 2 pitches of jugging - good thing the Valley has a gear shop! Obviously I contact them expecting restitution but all they give me is "sorry it's been >6 months, here's a coupon". Yes, technically they're right and I'm past warranty, but I expect a company to stand by their product.

Compare that with Sportiva, who replace defective product no questions asked.

Daniel wrote:

I, a totally human person not attached to a corporation and definitely not a bot, am also impressed by the great technology of Adidas. I especially love their corporate governance structure, and their accurate quarterly earnings reports. I feel it improved my lead bouldering greatly.

All Praise Be To Adidas and their above average supply chain. adidas.

It’s sad really. I remember Charles when he was in like a 500 sq foot, cheapest unit one could find in the San Fernando valley. Grinding rubber, and covered in it, selling the sheets. He was so stoked on what he was doing. Loved rockclimbing so passionately. Let’s face it he was a more modern version of Chounard making what he wanted to-  namely the best rubber for climbing. I bet he is turning over in his grave right now.
RIP

Guy Keesee wrote:

It’s sad really. I remember Charles when he was in like a 500 sq foot, cheapest unit one could find in the San Fernando valley. Grinding rubber, and covered in it, selling the sheets. He was so stoked on what he was doing. Loved rockclimbing so passionately. Let’s face it he was a more modern version of Chounard making what he wanted to-  namely the best rubber for climbing. I bet he is turning over in his grave right now.
RIP

So true.  Adidas has ruined the brand as far as rock climbing shoes.  Unparallel is trying to the keep the real brand going:  https://www.unparallelsports.com

Seems Shauna Coxsey and Giuliano Cameroni have moved on from Five Ten. Probably only a matter of time until the rest of the team goes if this brand is indeed, dead. Interested to see where “Lifer” Dave Graham ends up.

D W wrote:

Seems Shauna Coxsey and Giuliano Cameroni have moved on from Five Ten. Probably only a matter of time until the rest of the team goes if this brand is indeed, dead. Interested to see where “Lifer” Dave Graham ends up.

I’ll be curious as to when Janja and Bosi get axed/jump ship. Imagine making shoes for the two strongest athletes in a sport and just being like “naw, no potential here, shut it down”

John Clark wrote:

I’ll be curious as to when Janja and Bosi get axed/jump ship. Imagine making shoes for the two strongest athletes in a sport and just being like “naw, no potential here, shut it down”

You’d think adidas would at least stick around till after the Olympics to see if they get a bump. With Janja wearing custom re-skinned OG hiangles and miho repping fivetenaya oasis, it seems like their own athletes didn’t even have faith in their product.

Sasha Digiullian had a post on Instagram where she was wearing Scarpa's, and replied to a comment basically saying she was looking at different shoe sponsors. Last week Unparallel had a social media post that they were now sponsoring a climber that I wasn't familiar with. He was a Japanese comp climber who looked like he was previously with Five Ten. Still waiting to see what is in store for Dave Graham, Will Bosi, and Janja. 

It's a bummer to see a company with so much in terms of resources, design talent, and athletic talent kinda screw their shoes up. The video of Fred Nicole hanging out at 5.10 with all their prototyping equipment gives the impression that a lot of cool gear could be made. Like it made any footage of LS's factory look somewhat ancient (erm: traditional). Maybe they're still working out the kinks of moving from one-off prototypes to mass produced gear.

Yannick Flohe also moved on from his hiangle to unparallel souped up

I agree that it seems like there is an athlete exodus occurring. I would be curious to know if this is driven by the athletes wanting to explore other options, or addidas telling them they will not renew the contracts, they did have a lot of athletes on payroll. I think it is interesting that giuliano still seems to be sponsored by Terrex for clothing, his Evolv announcement was full of their clothes and they are still in his instagram bio. Maybe some will stick around on the clothing sponsorship but change shoes. As for betting on the coming olympics, I bet they were hoping for a big sales increase after the last olympics and didn't see one.

Overall we have seen quite a bit of movement among athletes shoes sponsorships in the last year. Seb going to BD after being with EB forever, Shawn Raboutou joining scarpa after wearing solutions for a long time, and now all these 5.10 changes. I am curious if there will be any other big shake-ups soon, and where the 5.10 athletes will land.  

It used to feel like gyms would be half 5.10 shoes once upon a time, and now seeing them is uncommon in my area. And seeing someone wearing a new 5.10 shoe other than the hiangle is actually a rarity...

A sad end of an era. Last night I threw my last pair of OG Dragons in the trash bin. 

Frank Stein wrote:

A sad end of an era. Last night I threw my last pair of OG Dragons in the trash bin. 

I have a beat up pair I'm considering resoling...

climbing00 wrote:

I have a beat up pair I'm considering resoling...

Third pair of three, nine-years-old, fourth resole…it was time to let them go. 

Frank Stein wrote:

Third pair of three, nine-years-old, fourth resole…it was time to let them go. 

Awesome. I have one pair in good shape (although the tongue ripped out) and one pair that is beat. The good pair I keep for special occasions LOL. Not to get off topic, but what shoe did you find to replace the dragons? I'm still searching. 

climbing00 wrote:

Awesome. I have one pair in good shape (although the tongue ripped out) and one pair that is beat. The good pair I keep for special occasions LOL. Not to get off topic, but what shoe did you find to replace the dragons? I'm still searching. 

When 5.10 went full Adidas and moved their production to Asia, their models no longer fit my foot. I went to Sportiva and mostly use a quiver of Genius/Futura/Miura VS. They seem to fit a high-volume forefoot well  

I was a big fan of Boreal in the early to mid 90s, before going to 5.10, mostly due to better rubber, but nobody carries them anymore. 

climbing00 wrote:

Awesome. I have one pair in good shape (although the tongue ripped out) and one pair that is beat. The good pair I keep for special occasions LOL. Not to get off topic, but what shoe did you find to replace the dragons? I'm still searching. 

"They" say the UP Sirius is a worthy successor to the Dragon. Haven't tried them myself—and in fact have only used the post-adidas Dragon, which I quite liked, though people say Adidas f'ed up those compared to the original, so take it for what it's worth. The Sirius is definitely on my radar as a likely next shoe.

Does anyone even carry Unparallel? I honestly have not seen a single pair in the wild. Wouldn’t mind trying their Dragon and Anasazi analogues. 

I tried the Sirius and it was too large to give a good opinion, maybe should have tried low volume. Toe box was more rounded than the five ten dragon. 

Frank Stein wrote:

Does anyone even carry Unparallel? I honestly have not seen a single pair in the wild. Wouldn’t mind trying their Dragon and Anasazi analogues. 

High Altitude truckee carried them last I saw, but i think it was more their performance velcro models, not lace ups