Intermediate shoes for indoor TR/leading and bouldering

Hi all,

My tarantulaces are pretty much falling apart (the rubber on the toe has torn off from pistol squatting small edges on the slab wall), and I'm looking for a shoe that does well on indoor top rope/lead routes and bouldering. I go outdoors occasionally, but it's exclusively been single-pitch sport climbing so far.

I've heard a lot of different (and sometimes contradicting) reviews on different shoes; through my own research, it seems like the La Sportiva Katana Laces could be a good choice for my purposes, but I'm interested to see if anyone more experienced in climbing and with a variety of shoes has any advice before I spend the money.

Thanks!

Katana laces are excellent shoes for most things, but my experience has been that their stiffness and lack of toe rubber (and mushy heels on the pre-2022 versions) didn’t foster the growth of techniques like heel- and toe-hooking and the heightened awareness of foot placement that advancing through harder climbs demands. If you’re looking for a one-quiver shoe, consider intermediate shoes like the Skwama or Otaki that have a good heel, a decent amount of toe rubber, and moderate stiffness. Scarpa Quantic and Quantix are also solid choices. 

+1 to the Skwama (softer) or Otaki (stiffer) depending on your preference

A few other options worth considering:

- Ocun's Ozone is a bit of a budget version of the Otaki, but with slightly less curl in the toebox (still concave, just a little less cupped), a lower volume heel (ideal if you get heel dead space in most shoes), and normal+high volume versions depending on your foot shape/size. I found the HV version to be about a US number larger than the Otaki and 1.5 sizes larger than the Skwama (so a 40.5 Skwama = 41 Otaki = 9.5 Ozone HV) but your mileage may vary.

- Scarpa's Instinct line fills a similar niche to the Skwama/Otaki but fit quite differently in the toe box, so it's worth seeing which fits your foot shape better. I'd skip the Vapor line, which IMO are overpriced and underperforming.

- If you have very narrow feet, consider Unparallel (effectively, the remnants of 5.10 after Adidas destroyed the original brand) - they're a good 5mm or more narrower than Scarpa/LS in the same length