Are my first pair of climbing shoes too small?

Just got a pair of La Sportiva Finale's. I normally wear 8.5 running sneakers and 8.0 casual shoes. I got the Finale's in 7.0 and man are they tight. I tried the hot shower method twice and it helped a little.

I find that I have to curl my toes (about 1/2 way not a full curl) to move without pain. I also have to tape my achilles tendon and toes to prevent the rough stitches inside the shoe from irritating my skin. Once I do all this the shoe becomes bearable for up 20 minutes so far.

Is all this normal and will it improve after use?

My main use case is single pitch sport climbing with some bouldering sprinkled in.

Yes, they are too small. 

They seem sized about right if you take them off between climbs. Size up if you are out climbing all day on multipitch. But it also seems like they may not be a good model for your foot shape of you are taping your foot all over.

Rough stitching around the Achilles tendon is a common complaint with tis shoe. And yes, your description suggests that you bought them too small.  

Your toes should not be curled up in a shoe of that shape. Optimal fit for shoes like that - when laced up, there should be equal pressure over your whole foot, with no hot spots and no voids. You don't want the shoe to be sliding around under your feet, but there's no need to suffer.

Too small! Your first climbing shoes should not be hurting you. The limiting factor for anyone in their first pair of shoes is not that they aren't tight enough. It's much more important you feel comfy so you can work on technique and get a lot of volume in to get better at climbing. Most people (especially dudes) blow through their first pair of shoes pretty quickly due to poor footwork and then they start lasting longer. I'd get a new comfy pair and maybe save the finale's and try them again when you have a better sense of what a shoe should do/feel like.

Raz Bob wrote:

I'd get a new comfy pair and maybe save the finale's and try them again when you have a better sense of what a shoe should do/feel like.

I fit my Sportivas 1 to 2.5 sizes down from street shoes, so I doubt they're really, really too small; they're just not ideal for a 1st pair of shoes. When you get used to wearing tight climbing shoes (and the Finales break in) they will probably be fine. So all is not lost. Get a comfier pair but keep the Finales for later. You want at least 2 pairs of shoes anyway, at the very least for when you send a pair in for resoling.

Here are the usual possibilities

- Shoe fits your foot, you chose wrong size. Finales have leather uppers, they probably stretch out by a full US size. 20min at a time sounds not horrible, consider taking your shoes off between climbs. Rough inside seams is what should be expected from LS on lower end shoes.

-Shoe does not fit your foot. The red flags - localized hot spots, Achilles tendon compression, need to downsize a lot to make shoe fit your foot. Different manufacturers tend to use slightly different lasts, that results in different fit. Shoes marketed as low volume or for women will have different volume distribution - differences in fit are really noticeable if you luck out and shoe company rep has same low/high volume shoes in appropriate sizes during shoe demos.

In general - you can pretty much disregard anyone telling you what to wear if they haven't seen your foot. But, pay attention to what they suggest you should try.

So far, everything people have said is right on. One more comment: You don't talk about your foot shape, and if you don't live someplace with a good store, you'll have limited choices for trying things on. For example, in Boulder, Rock and Resole has a spectacular selection of shoes, so you can try many brands. If all you have is REI, for example, there's not a lot of depth. I highly recommend that you search this site for discussions related to fit. That will help narrow your choices. Also, the Finales are the right type of shoe (flat last), but most manufacturers have something like it.