Black Diamond  Momentum Climbing Shoes - Men's

If you’re a beginner or experienced looking for a gym burner (when you don’t want to destroy your TC pros), this is the shoe. The quick and dirty: in my experience, order a 1.5-2 sizes up from your street shoes for comfortable fit (able to wear socks with them on cold crag days). For reference - in brooks running shoes, I’ll wear 11.5, and I buy these in 13. Details: These are not aggressive and considered a “softer” shoe, that being said, they are comfy and do their job. Once worn down a bit after breaking in, you can really feel the small foot holds/chips on higher graded routes in gyms (think 5.11 and up). As for outside, you won’t have a problem wearing them for extended period of time (multi pitch belay and climb, for example), and in theory you could keep them on and walk around in the gym without taking them off, but I take them off in between burns anyways. I’m approaching 3 years climbing, and this has been my go to - because I know the sizing, when I order online I know what I’m going to get, they generally go on sale twice a year, and they are perfect for my needs - climbing very frequently and performing. Also, because they are on the cheaper end of shoes, you can have a pair for burning in the gym, and a pair for outdoors. As for negatives, you may experience a very slight gap in the heel - this is considered “bad” or improperly fitting, but I haven’t really had an issue with this. I believe this shoe is meant to have a wider toe box so it would be better for those with wider feet. Also, I like the white and black version of this shoe - the previous model looked pretty nice too (grey and blue), but I can’t find them anymore. I hope this review helps at least someone out there who is looking for a pair of climbing shoes, thanks for reading.

Don't get me wrong, this is a really great shoe. If you're just beginning climbing this might be the shoe for you. I only rate this 3 stars because I had issues with sanitation of the shoes. After each use I would spray them with Lysol disinfectant spray. But over time the shoes became VERY smelly and started to grow a type of fungus/gunk I'd rather not know about. I've since read that certain climbing shoes are made of materials that are more prone to this behavior. I would guess whatever material this shoe is made of is more prone to it. Otherwise it is a great shoe, especially for beginner climbers. The price point is right and the rubber is great. If you plan on upgrading shoes in the next several months, I would feel confident buying these shoes.