I’m a sucker for gear, no matter what sport, and one of the things I love about bouldering is the shoes. However, as someone who has small but wide feet, finding climbing shoes has proven fairly difficult.

 

Street size I’m a UK 3, and I know that there are plenty of female climbing shoes out there in stores and cyberspace readily available. However, the women’s version of a climbing shoe always tend to be low volume, which makes it difficult to fit my cube-like feet into them. So why not try the male versions? Trying to find my street size in the men’s version can be difficult regardless of brand. Yet the most frustrating thing is when you are required to downsize. My feet cease to exist in some boots! I have no issue with downsizing to get a snug fitting shoe, I understand that. What I don’t understands is how a UK 6 in one brand measures exactly the same as a UK 4 in another, yet due to having to downsize the size options and availablity become very limited.

 

I’m sorry for the rant vibe, climbing shoes and their sizes are a quirk of the climbing world. Of course finding shoes that fit your feet is not an impossible task, sometimes it just feels that way. Evolv, Mad Rock, Scarpa and Five Ten are all brands that I have tried and found good for wide feet, and would recommend for anyone in a similar situation. In all of these brands I have size matched or gone up half a size, you can read some reviews here.

 

Ultimately I know that there are plenty of amazing companies who can source and order shoes in the size you require. Equally there are so many climbing shoes and brands that I have not even tried yet. It’s highly possible I’m simply jealous of everyone with average feet who get to try any shoe their heart desires!

If you have any advice, please leave a comment 🙂