Fairly new climber here! 👋🏽 I have a question for you (if you can answer). In normal every day life, I wear size 5 1/2 or 6 in shoes; my cousin gave me a free pair of size 6 rock climbing shoes that fit like a glove. I have been told rock climbing shoes should run small though, should I consider still buying new ones? Thank you for taking time to answer! 🧗🏼♀️
Heyo!
That’s a good question. I guess the answer would depend on what you mean by “fit like a glove”.
So, here’s our basic climbing shoe, right?
Climbing shoes are supposed to be small and tight enough around your foot to make sure your toes/heel don’t slide around and move at all during climbing. You depend on this to have good grip.
Basically, your foot inside the shoe should be like this:
It shouldn’t hurt, but you shouldn’t be comfortable with the idea of walking around in the shoes all day. If you feel like you can slip them on in the morning and walk around for longer than 3 hours without being bothered, they’re too big for climbing in.
That being said, if they are relatively tight and you feel like you can climb in them effectively, then don’t feel too pressured to get new shoes. They’re expensive, and I wouldn’t say that beginners need awesome super-tight climbing shoes. In fact, it’s much better to get used to climbing in older, slightly looser shoes, and get yourself some more aggressive shoes after you know that you want to keep climbing at a higher level.
Either way, have fun!! :D
