Stealth rubber really the "best"

After reading many of the posts online it seems the majority of people seem to have a strong favoritism towards five ten's stealth and la sportivas XS edge and rarely someone saying that evolv's rubber is their favorite.

What's is your opinion?

personally i have had good experience with my sportivas old XSV or whatever their older shoes had on them, but then again i have not had much climbing done in five tens

my two cents, Acopa's rubber is my choice.

I'm kinda tied between stealth and evolv, the evolv doesn't last as long but seems to smear better IMO, and I can't stand la sportiva. just my 2 cents.

I think it has to do more with personal perceptions than actual fact of one being superior than the other.

In an attempt to find the "best" rubber, I resoled a pair of muiras twice: once with evolv and once with stealth. so, I've compared all three on the same shoe.

stealth and la sport seemed comparable, but I found my feet cutting loose with the evolv.

So, my preference is either stealth or la sport. But, this is just a personal annecdote, which is as good as you'll get to a definitive answer.

stealth would be my vote too. although i really like acopa's rubber but it isn't very durable. with evolv rubber i can agree that it feels very sticky on smears but not so much on edging.

czuke wrote:After reading many of the posts online it seems the majority of people seem to have a strong favoritism towards five ten's stealth and la sportivas XS edge and rarely someone saying that evolv's rubber is their favorite. What's is your opinion? personally i have had good experience with my sportivas old XSV or whatever their older shoes had on them, but then again i have not had much climbing done in five tens

I do like the C4 Stealth Rubber, Enough so that I am resoling the solutions with it. But I picked up a pair of Muiras and am happy with the rubber on them. Some rubber works better for diffrent situations, Ya DIG....

evolv definitely wears faster.

These rubbers are all different and therefore work better for different things. I have only had one pair of evolvs, and I didn't like them one bit, the rubber didn't feel sticky and wore out faster than any other shoe I've seen.

I find Sportivas rubber to be some of the most durable stuff out there, and I trust that its got my ass often. Katanas are definitely one of the best all-around shoes on the market, if they fit you.

I remember stealth being stickier and slightly less durable than XS edge, the anasazi was a great shoe when it fit my foot. I liked the acopa rubber, although it blew in the toe after a month of climbing every day, those are bomber ass shoes though.

The best of the best would be Katanas for everything, micro-slabs to roofs, anasazis are good all-around too, Acopas are wicked nice although the original rubber may go quick.

5.10 and Evolv both have great rubber. I can't really tell the difference between all the different 5.10 stuff but I'd guess if there is one it has more to do with durability than friction.

Acopa has the best rubber hands down, and for me they make the best shoes. Too bad you can't get the rubber anymore and it seems that the whole company will be gone soon.

I have a pair of Evolve Defy's and LS Miura VS, I've liked the Miuras rubber more than Evolve...the Defy's seem to slip far more than they should. The Miuras might also just be a better shoe overall (being ~70$ more...)

I think Evolve bought an old formula of stealth from 5:10. One of their prototypes before they settled on C4. I know of a "famous" climber that used to be sponsored by Boreal and would immediatly have those shoes resoled with Stealth Rubber. Can't blame him, boreal rubber was junk.

There was a test performed by physicist a few years back (I think the article was on RC.com) that tested the friction coefficient of each brands climbing rubber and Evolv rated somewhere like a 9.45 out of 10 and 5.10 & Sportiva were both next at around an 8.5 out of 10. I started out 15-20 years ago in Sportiva's and after about 5 years I switched to 5.10 because it was much stickier...then when Evolv came out I switched to them and haven't been disappointed. I don't climb overhanging routes as much as I climb slab and edges, but I still think Evolv makes the best rubber. I've demoed both 5.10 & Sportiva at the Triple Crown this year to compare the shoes on the same route, on the same day, and in the same conditions & ended up feeling that Evolv gave me the best grip out of the 3 still. I hate my Evolv's cause they smell like a dead rotting dog...but they climb like a lizard when I need them to!

Scarpa, Sportiva, Mammut, and several other brands all use the same exact rubber, made by the company Vibram. If you like the rubber on the Miura, or Katana, for example, you'll find many other brands with exactly the same friction or edging ability, because Sportiva is just one of many companies that purchase the same rubber and apply it to the soles of their shoes.

czuke wrote:After reading many of the posts online it seems the majority of people seem to have a strong favoritism towards five ten's stealth and la sportivas XS edge and rarely someone saying that evolv's rubber is their favorite. What's is your opinion? personally i have had good experience with my sportivas old XSV or whatever their older shoes had on them, but then again i have not had much climbing done in five tens

I find that no shoe does it all yet.

Im a big fan of la Sportiva on limestone and Dolomite,

Gneiss and granite is a wash in performance for me, I can't tell much of a difference IMHO.

5.10 C4 performs splendidly on sand stone.

Brad Caldwell wrote:There was a test performed by physicist a few years back (I think the article was on RC.com) that tested the friction coefficient of each brands climbing rubber...

And the methodology was terrible, the physicist should be ashamed.

I find that over the long haul, sportiva is best for sustained edging while 5.10 is best for shear friction. But those are the brands I know. I've never had an acopa shoe fit well enough for the rubber to make a difference.

There is a lot of misleading info above. When one refers to a brand of shoe, they are not really specifying the rubber and there have been a bunch of changes over the last several years by Vibram which provides rubber for LS, Scarpa and others.

It was xsv for a while, then xs grip. Many people felt this was the best rubber around. Apparently, they dealt with too many warranties because of wear. Now, they offer two different rubbers depending on the shoe. XS Grip 2 and XS Edge. You have to look on the bottom of the shoe to know for sure since shoes can sit in a retailers' stock for a long time.

The XS Grip 2 they claim to be more sticky and more durable. I have not used it. I would like to hear from those that have.
The XS Edge they claim to be harder, more durable and better for edging, but less sticky. This I found to be quite true. But, they don't perform quite as well on colder days or when pure friction is needed.

Stealth C4 has not changed for some time to my knowledge, but I believe Five Ten is discontinuing Onyx.

So, which rubber? Well, to give a valued opinion, one should state the actual rubber, not the shoe and what conditions it performs well in. And, to truly be objective, one should try the different rubbers on the same route on the same day. Temp, humidity and other variables will affect performance.

I give a thumbs up for XS Edge for sharper rock, precise edging in warmer temps. But, thumbs down for colder days and pure friction/smearing.

Question is meaningless until you start talking about:

At what temp?
For edging or smearing?
Do you care about durability?

"Stealth"? Also meaningless. There are about 4 or 5 different formulations of "Stealth"...C4, Onyx, HF, etc that all have different characteristics.

Will S wrote:Question is meaningless until you start talking about: At what temp? For edging or smearing? Do you care about durability? "Stealth"? Also meaningless. There are about 4 or 5 different formulations of "Stealth"...C4, Onyx, HF, etc that all have different characteristics.

THIS

Stealth C4 seems best in colder conditions and smearing. I like it on cold fall days on the granite where you're smearing in a stem corner or on some smooth slabs. Seems ideal. I've also heard from more than one person that stealth C4 is good for the pure friction of the Apron, again in cooler conditions. When it gets hot, I think all Stealth rubbers tend to "melt off" holds and not perform very well.

In warmer conditions the older Vibram XSV seemed to be the champ. It stayed firm when the rock temps were hot and smeared and edged well. XSV also seemed to be the better edging compound at places like Smith where you needed the shoe not to deform on small nubbins. XSV did not perform as well on the smoother granite, esp when cold.

I have less experience with the Newer Vibram rubbers and NONE with Onyx etc.

I was VERY impressed with XS Edge on my TC Pros for smearing on rough granite slabs and edging on granite face climbs. Very little edge deformation and the smearing was also impressive. temps were in the mid 70s. I've yet to test XS Edge in cooler conditions.

No Experience yet with XS Grip 2 but feed back I've heard has been very positive.

This is probably over the top for most but I typically had two pairs of the same shoes with different rubber (C4 and Vibram). Depending on conditions I chose one or the other. It also helped reduce wear on the shoes and I had a "back up" pair if a company decided to discontinue a loved style.

YMMV

LOL.

But what's the best rubber for hand-jammies? And it better be a double-blind study...

MattB wrote:But what's the best rubber for hand-jammies? And it better be a double-blind study...

I'll bite. I've tried hand jammies ONCE. It was on some 3-4in OW in Yos. Polished as sh_t.
The jammies made my already large mits that much bigger and the crack that much easier. There was stealth on them and it worked well on the polished granite.

That said, I've never used them again...

This thread ALWAYS illustrates there are two types of "gear" climbers. Those who don't care much about gear, other than they need some and the "engineers" who LOVE to tinker and master the gear. No better or worse (though the "engineers" take some flack)