New climbing shoes for wide toes and small heel.

I have a wider forefoot and narrow heels and find that the la sportiva solution and futura heel cups dont work for me. The Skwama on the other hand fits great and is my favorite shoe, but the rubber wears out fast. I’ve just accepted that I need to pay for a resole a little more frequently or climb warmup/easy routes in some cheaper shoes with harder rubber 

Hello again,

first of my feet are like the big toe and the second are almost identical in lenght and then it gets smaller.

I finally got the chance to try the drone 2.0 in HV in my gym but sadly they dont fit.

The problem is, i cant get smaller in width because my little toe is already in pain, but i still have a lot of air in fronst of my big toe sadly :/

so i guess skwama, shaman or theroy it is going to be

Here’s my update:

I emailed all the manufacturers describing my issue *, and attached a trace drawing round my foot to show the shape, asking them which model they’re recommend for intermediate bouldering.  Based on their replies and this thread I’ve come up with the following list to try:

• Ocun Jett QC
• Scarpa Veloce L WMN
• Tenaya Mundaka
• Red Chili Voltage 2
• Evolv Zenist Men
• La Sportiva Skwama Woman
• So ill Stay
• Mad Rock Drone 2.0 HV

I plan to go to the Banana Fingers shop in Bristol (UK) soon to try as many as I can from the list.  They stock all but the last two, which you can’t get in UK.

I’ll let you know how I get on!

* This is the description I sent the shoe manufacturers:

“My toes are Egyptian shape.  My forefoot is very wide but my heel is narrow.  I have owned several shoes over the years and every one of them causes extreme pain in my big toe – it feels like all my weight is loaded on the knuckle joint, and the top of the big toe gets crushed.  If I try a shoe that fits my toes, the heel cup is much too big.  My ankle is typically female profile, so shoes with a high-cut ankle rub badly. ”

I hope for you the drones 2.0 will fit, i thought they were amazing and i am very sad they didnt fit my foot.

I tried UK 9 and 8 and sadly in 7 i wasnt able to get in,

Hello,

so a little update from my shoe testing:

I have size EU42 for reference.

The Drago LV in 39 are way to baggy and lose at the bottom of my heel.

The Instinct VSR in 39 hurt my knuckels at the top if my toes if i only stand up.

So scarpa is out for me.

The theory women in 39 is a okay fit, i have some space at the front where my toes are, but i think they are to soft for me.

Then i have the skwama vegan woman, they fit pretty well in 39 but i am going to try 38 to see if they are better.

Then i habe the shaman in EU 41,5 they fit also very good, but the heel is stiffer than the skwama i think?

I will also try 41 in these to see if they fit smaller better.

I will updated my final choice between skwama and shaman

I've found my shoes!!!      

To summarise:

• Foot shape: Egyptian toes, wide forefoot, narrow heel, typically female ankle profile, street size 38
•  Problem:  Extreme pain in the knuckle of my big toe, which always feels like it's being crushed more than my other toes, and taking most of my weight, causing me to stop climbing way too early because it was so painful 

Solution:

• Scarpa Veloce L (lace-up) Wmn (women's), size 37

After trying on all the shoes on my list, I ended up with a short-list of either the Tenaya Mundaka in size 38, or the Veloce in size 37.5, 38 or 38.5 (the shop only had size 38 when I first visited).

When I went back to re-try, the Veloce 37.5 felt less painful than the 38, so I tried going down to a 37 to see how that felt, and it was even better.  My only tiny gripe is that the heel is a little baggy.

I climbed for an hour before doing my final trying-on, and then climbed for an hour after, wearing my new shoes.  They are immediately so much more comfortable than both my old Andrea Boldrinis and the size 37 hire shoes I've been using recently.  The only reason I went home was because the climbing wall was closing!!

For completeness, here's what I found with the other shoes that were on my long-list:

• Ocun Jett QC:  usual toe pain problem
• Tenaya Mundaka:  good, but not quite as good as the Veloce
• Red Chili Voltage 2:  usual toe pain problem, ankle too high, felt overall small and painful after up-sizing one from my street size (this was the smallest size they had in the shop)
• Evolv Zenist Men: usual toe pain problem, ankle too high. Comes up very small.
• La Sportiva Skwama Woman: ankle too high 

I was unable to try the So ill Stay or Mad Rock Drone 2.0 HV as they're not stocked in UK.

Lessons learnt from this whole exercise:

1. Always do the shoes up fully when trying on, as this allows the shoe to work with your foot and flex as it was designed to do - you can't tell if a shoe will work for you unless you've done it up.  

2. Downsizing better enables the whole foot and toes to work as one unit compared to the larger size, and can actually improve things if the larger size feels painful.

Good luck to @Yan ik and others still looking for their perfect shoe.  It is out there, don't lose hope!!!