Shoes...

For my two cents...
As somewhat of a novice, I can tell you a few things about a few different companies from my perspective.

I started out ordering a pair of Scarpa Technos. I had heard great things and decided to get a pair without trying sizes (as a beginner, making a stupid move). I wear size 13 shoes, equating to a 47, and I got a 46. The toe, however was defective after only a few times on the rock, not coming apart because of bad footwork, but because there was an issue with the gluing. Once I alerted Scarpa to this, they offered me more solutions to my problem than I could hope. I was offered new shoes, same shoes resoled, an exchange for equal value, or an exchange for a more expensive pair with a bit of a discount for my trouble. I actually chose none of those options as I happened across a pair of Five Ten Moccasyms in 12's and returned my Scarpas for a refund. In hindsight though, both shoes of similar last should have been sized down to the equivalent of a 11.5 or 11 to get my worth out of them, but it is still probably my best buy to date.

The Five Tens are incredibly sticky, and good all around for me, my go-to sport shoes now, but I since have bought shoes for what I thought would be great for steep sport and bouldering, my La Sportiva Solutions. I have since resigned to using them exclusively for bouldering, and love them, but at 45's... they should be sized down even further to 44.5 or 44. I love the shoes, but they do stretch a lot as Joe Kinder was discussing on his sight.

Last night, however, I experienced my Scarpa renaissance. A Scarpa rep was at the local climbing gym, and after oogling at Boosters from afar, I was actually able to try a pair. Minutes after I put on the size 45 Boosters, I had sent three difficult problems I had worked on at the gym for over a month. Correlation is not causation, and climbing in the gym cannot say what effect they have on the real rock, so maybe it isn't worth stating, but the shoes are incredible. I actually had a problem with how tight they were though, seeing as they were the same size at my Solutions, which are not quite small enough but work quite well. I had such an intense pain from the tightness that my spine hurt, yet I hear that Scarpas stretch a bit, so I decided these might be the right size for me. I can climb extremely well for about 15 minutes before I have to take the shoes off, so maybe my go-to redpoint shoes?

I have a feeling, my arsenal will always be a mixed bag, with a pair of Sportiva Solutions to boulder in on steep overhanging problems, soon a pair of Scarpa Boosters for bouldering and sport climbing, and maybe some day I will get another pair of Five Ten Moccasyms for all around comfort and sport climb projecting (because I have to say, they are fantastic shoes and will always be remembered as such).

As a return post, I know this is long, but I am looking for input on shoes. I want to know what you climb in, why, and your opinion on if what I described as my Booster shoe experience seems like the right size for me. Thanks to Joe Kinder for inspiring this post. I wanted to post this in your comments, but the pontificating seemed better suited for a blog that few people read. Please, comment away!