My old LS Genius, it got a hole.
As some of you already know, I've been publishing in-depth information around climbing shoes for months now.
I and my climber friends are always talking about the climbing stuff in the backyard of my local climbing gym. Our's one of the much-debated topic is what to do with old climbing shoes.
We all have a quiver of climbing shoes, but sooner or later one of our "lucky" climbing shoe will be getting older. If you're a guy like me that have a superstition, you might want to save your luckiest shoes (or just want to do some savings). Here we are, there's a summary of what to do with old climbing shoes:
- Recycling
- Resoling
- Donate
- Selling Old Climbing Shoes
- Make Them Your Deep-Water Solo Shoes
Finding perfect climbing shoes that perform easily in every territory or every style of climbing is impossible. We have to find out and analyze the shoes that we want to use.
Even the best climbers have more than one pair of shoes for different routes and types of rocks. Of course, they have a favorite one.
You can check the video below that made by one of the best climbers of our age talking about the alchemy of climbing shoes.
Before getting into details of bullets above that I've talked about, I'd want to say a word about how important choosing a climbing shoe and proper use of a climbing shoe is.
Sooner or later, the climbing shoe gets older, that's a fact. But, there're some ways that we could slow down the process of becoming old.
Choosing a climbing shoe is one of the things. I'd recommend you to pay attention fits, climbing shoe volume according to your foot, and durability of climbing shoes. If you wonder about what's the climbing shoe volume, you might want to check La Sportiva Climbing Shoe Comparison Chart.
The other important thing is the proper use of climbing shoes. It gets time to learn the climbing technique. The footwork is the essential technique in climbing for the proper use of climbing shoes. Eventually, you'll learn how to do proper footwork, but please be careful when doing footwork until you get better and better. Otherwise, your climbing shoe wears out prematurely.
1. RECYCLING
Actually, There's no rock climbing shoe manufacturer that takes shoes back for recycling. So, there's no guaranteed way to do that. But, if you have eco-friendly climbing shoes, you have a chance to recycle. You could check here La Sportiva's eco-friendly climbing shoes.
2.RESOLING
Resoling gets times.
I think the first best thing you might want to do for your wallet and environment is to resole your climbing shoes.
After using many climbing sessions, keep your climbing shoes in action with resoling is a thing. Also, I resole mine. Let me say, I generally get 4-5 resoles before the climbing shoe is done.
One of the important things in resoling is that always resole before your climbing shoe gets a hole. I'd say that if you have holes in your shoes, it's too late.
Also, if you buy a sustainable climbing shoe, it'll affect keeping your climbing shoe around longer.
To clarify about the cost savings depends on the buying a new pair, the resoling is 20-40% of the cost of a brand new shoe. A new pair costs around 20$-60$. The final cost depends on all the repairs, and if shipping is involved.
So, if you wonder more about resoling climbing shoes, you can check the video below.
3. DONATE
One of the other options that you might want to. It's good to donate to help get new people into climbing who are always looking for gear donations. Also, there're many organizations that are doing that kind of thing.
4. SELLING OLD CLIMBING SHOES
There're always people who are looking for second-hand gear. If you don't want to use your old pairs anymore and earn some money, selling is a good way to do these.
5. Make Them Your Deep-Water Solo Shoes
Chilling while my friend is looking for a route.
The first time I saw a comment about making your old pairs your deep-water sole shoes, I was shocked. How this didn't come to my mind.
After reading about using your old climbing shoe for the deep-water sole, I looked up my old pair and went climbing to the next closest area for deep-water solo climbing.
Guys, I could easily say that it's the perfect thing for old shoes. It's already old, and you don't care about what if it gets wet. So, I'd recommend you to make them your deep-water solo shoes.
THE VERDICT
Using climbing shoes properly is really important before getting decide about what to do with old climbing shoes. There's a lot of option about that. It's up to you guys, choose wisely, and always climb as much as you could.
