Climbing shoes for beginners?

Took a bouldering class a few years ago and never pursued the sport. Now I have teenagers that want to give it a try, so all of us need shoes. We're all in adult sizes. What make/model should we be looking at? Thanks.

Try on every neutral shoe you can get your hands on, and choose the one that best fits your foot. The fit should be snug with no extra space, but not painful.

Yeah, go neutral. Inexpensive too. You upgrade shoes as you progress

I climb v8/5.12 and I got the BD momentums in my street shoe size recently and am quick happy with them. You can't really go wrong with a good slipper or lace-up neutral shoe as are being suggested. As long as you get a shoe that doesn't have any floppiness in the toe, you can climb about anything you want. Chris sharma climbed a 5.14d test piece in Five ten Moccasyms, so the shoes don't matter too much unless you are doing very specific styles.

For a first shoe, make sure you don't fall into the trap of going too tight. When you're first starting, the most important thing in a shoe is comfort. If you climb more, you will progress faster than you would if you get that extra 2% performance by squeezing your feet into too tight of a shoe. Many, many retail employees will over-stress shoes being tight. You should target having your toes flat and touching the front of the shoe, not curled up.

Common beginner shoes include:

• La Sportiva Tarantulace (or La Sportiva Finale for a slightly nicer, more expensive shoe)
• Black Diamond Momentum
• Scarpa Origin or Helix
• Five Ten Rogue

Definitely not a definitive list, but expect to spend $80-100/pair unless you find a sale.

^^^^ Good advice, Carson! 

Infrequent use (~10-15x/yr.): the cheapest neutral pair that fits comfortably. La Sportiva Tarantulaces are cheap (~$60), but don't hold up to substantial use... especially with beginner technique (namely dragging your toe up the wall). For the same price, they also make a velcro Tarantulace (the "Tarantula"), which is quicker to take off/put on.

Weekly/biweekly gym climbing: something more durable. La Sportiva Finales (~$110) will last much longer, edge fairly well, and are only marginally more expensive. You'll want to size down as they stretch out almost an entire EU size. Finales will be sufficient for your family, until you start more intermediate problems, where even then people make do with them. Finales are also halfway decent for sport/trad climbing and comfortable for all-day use on multipitch routes, if you're so inclined.
     - for wider feet: consider buying Scarpa brand. Their Helix is basically a Finale equivalent at a similar price-point but wider.
     - some people like slippers: I'd recommend 5.10 Anasazi Moccasyms (~$125). They don't fit my foot right (9.5 is too tight/10 is too big), but I love the idea of them and unless your doing hard boulder problems or throwing a lot of aggressive heel hooks, they're totally sufficient. Also pretty solid for (most) sport climbing and multipitch.

EDIT TO ADD: Carson types faster than me. +100 on his advice

One note - a lot of beginner shoes mentioned above have leather uppers. Leather uppers are really nice, because shoes break in to fit your feet very well. The biggest downside - it is nearly impossible to fit them as 1st pair of shoes since they are going to feel very different after they break in stretching out 1-2 sizes.

I always suggest beginning climbers try on shoes with synthetic uppers, these usually stretch out only 1/4-1/2 size and make fitment a bit easier.
 

amarius wrote: One note - a lot of beginner shoes mentioned above have leather uppers. Leather uppers are really nice, because shoes break in to fit your feet very well. The biggest downside - it is nearly impossible to fit them as 1st pair of shoes since they are going to feel very different after they break in stretching out 1-2 sizes.

I always suggest beginning climbers try on shoes with synthetic uppers, these usually stretch out only 1/4-1/2 size and make fitment a bit easier.
 

Ha, I was going to suggest the opposite...get a pair of La Sportiva Mythos, fitted snug, and wear them around the house for longer and longer periods until they fit like a glove. 

They will stretch a full size. I wear a size 44 street shoe, but size down to a 42.5 Mythos.  They are decent shoes that do it all pretty well, but not great.

If they are still too tight, have a cobbler stretch them.