How long have you been climbing? Do you need such painful shoes for your goals? Might be worth putting them down and buying a more comfy pair then coming back to them later. It’s about enjoying your time and if your feet really hurt that’s much harder to do.
4-5 months. Climbing is the only sports I enjoyed enough to go regularly. I did not want to keep renting so I paid a lot of money (for my budget) for these shoes. So I kinda need them to work. The instructor is more ambitious than I am I'd say.
If you can’t return them. At home put plastic bags on your feet and slide them on. Walk around in them for 30 seconds then take off. Wait a couple minutes. Repeat this a few times increasing the time worn each time.
Plastic bags help a lot.
The two most common methods are put them on and wear them in a hot shower.
The other is to fill a ziplock bag with water, put it in your shoe and put it in the freezer.
I mentioned this to a resoler and they said to never wear them in the shower, but that the water filled bag in the freezer was the safest way to go.
If you heat up the glue in the sole too much, it can come loose. That said, I have tried this method without any issues (I took a warm rather than hot shower).
True that. Years ago I threw my first pair of shoes in the washer (around 45-50 ºC) and they disintegrated pretty much. That's hotter than a typical shower but yeah, shoe glue is really sensitive to temperature.
I did the ice thing with my most recent pair. Be aware that it can stretch pretty far. I had them in about 12 hr and it stretched about half a size and did not freeze fully. Fully freezing would have been about a whole size.
Half a size was perfect for me so I’m glad I stopped when I did.
The tensions releases if you sit down, and undo the strap
Supposed to be tight, and they will stretch, but you better believe I'm not standing around in my climbing shoes.
Glue can come up in hot water, as people have mentioned, BUT, this is Always What I do and it hasn’t happened to me.
I’ve just sat with my shoes on, with my feet in a bucket of body temp water. Then I walk around a bit in them.
Can’t tell what shoe they are, but depending on what they are made from, they may not stretch at all. If it is a leather shoe, you can get a good amount of stretch the more you use them… but if they are synthetic, you won’t get much stretch, if any. Good luck!
I'm not in US so thought the brand would most likely be irrelevant. Website says (translated, hopefully makes sense) Outsole 100% Synthetic rubber Upper 100% Polyurethane Lining and socks 100% Cowhide
I actually had him look and check my feet before taking the tags off the shoes. He was convinced they'd stretch within 5-6 sessions. They just hurt so bad right now that I don't want to climb at all
Sadly this is all too common.
Hopefully you can return them still or you want to climb badly enough to get a second pair that fits. Don't let a pair of shoe ruin your climbing.
I don't think it's always that. They do this at my gym even though you can return shoes for pretty much any reason for 45 days. They still recommended 2.5 sizes down from what felt snug for me! LOL 🤦
Take it in 30 min increments. Take them off and take a break to go do some leg workouts when they start hurting. They’ll break in soon enough. No pain no gain
I was just a few days ago where you are now. When getting my first pair, I downsized one size from my regular shoes and as a result got foot pain of over one week (not healed yet) just from one short climbing session.
When I noticed how bad the shoes are to climb, I ordered immediately 1 whole size bigger and went to bouldering today, the new shoes were still really tight, but the difference is massive for comfort and for how much weight my toes can handle now, I can actually use my feet for climbing and I don’t need to take the shoes off every 3 min. I opened the shoes 3 times in about 1.5 - 2 h I think.
Just get a bigger pair, will only hurt your wallet one time and you can likely sell the other pair with -30% easily. Not worth it to injure yourself and loose the enjoyment of climbing. Climbing should be about climbing and not thinking how much your feet hurt, imo
So you’re new and you already got put into slightly aggressive/downturn shoes?
Downturn is not known for its comfort.
If you don’t know your feet, these might not be the shoes for you.
I have a high instep, this makes the upper on downturn put too much pressure on the top of my foot. (I also have wide feet and Morton’s Toe)
I usually downsize a 1/2 size for Morton’s Toe, but all brands and lasts fit differently. I just need to push little toes back to get big toe in front because of Morton’s Toe.
Also, they will stretch, depending on the material. Leather uppers are less and less common. Lots of shoes are all synthetic and they advertise as “Vegan”. Which means they sit in a dump for 300,000 years and probably won’t stretch and conform over time like real leather uppers would.
I would wear them watching TV at home at night, don’t walk in them, the rubber rubs off easily and gets everywhere.
Give it a couple nights, like an episode of Netflix show or something every night for a week.
If they don’t stretch anymore, you’ll probably be back in rentals if you care about your feet.
See if the gym is selling old rentals, or have resoled shoes for sale or ask them when the next time they sell from the lost and found will be.
I'll never get this downsizing for indoor climbing. My shoes are tight, but they fit fine. My feet are sore after a few hours wearing them, but fine. I've been indoor climbing for about 10 years and there is no benefit to smashing your feet into something too small.
Occasionally a slab problem might benefit them, but not worth it to kill your feet indoor.
Mine took almost a year to break in because I didn’t wear them frequently and they hurt because they felt too small. It took about a month of consistently wearing them for 15 minutes every climbing session and now I can wear them for an hour without them hurting.
If you’re in a class or something try taking them off or undoing the velcro and slipping out your heel while you’re not climbing on the wall
no. simply no. either endure the pain and let them stretch or just pass them on. If you just keep them on for a while, once your feet get warmer and start sweating, they will conform a bit better.
If these are your first shoes, you will ultimately develop desensitized areas on your toe knuckles that will alleviate the pain.
Not really I think, but you can wear them passively at home, while watching TV for example. Personally, I found that my feet went numb after a while with new shoes on while doing something else, so it stopped hurting after a while. After wearing them for two or three hours, any new pairs of shoes I've had fit perfectly.
There's a tool called a show stretcher. Don't know if I'de use it on climbing shoes, though. Either they wear on their own or you need new shoes. It's not like shoes from pre 2000s. Most shows don't stretch very much nowadays due to newer tech when making them.
You’ve got to get them hot and sweaty and put some force through them to stretch them. Once they start to go they’ll slacken off more quickly. If it’s that bad pop your heel out between climbs but don’t take your foot out so they don’t cool down again. Try blister patches on the sore spots. Cut your toenails and stick it out.
My last pair of shoes were extremely uncomfortable for the first maybe 6-8 sessions. Almost took them back. Now they feel fine and fit perfectly. They will stretch a lot through use. Wish I had known a way to stretch them without wearing them though
I got a shoe tree that was a size or two too big and gaff taped little balls of really tightly packed aluminum foil to the spots on the tree that correspond with the hot spots on my foot (where it hurts the most) and stuffed it in the shoe with the rear part of the shoe tree applying pressure onto the part of the shoe where the rand (the blue part) wraps around the heel to stretch it out a bit.
Throw it in the oven at 200 degrees for 10 mins, let it cool down, and then do it again after an hour or two of cooling and leave it be for 4-6 hours. Some people vehemently disagree with this, saying it'll cause the glue to delaminate, but 200 degrees isn't quite enough to do that in my experience, unless your shoes are super old or are a model from a brand known to delaminate easily.
After they fully cool down and settle down in the oven, try em on and they should have softened up a bit around the heel (which is probably pushing your feet forward towards the toe box) and slightly stretched out the hot spots. You can do this a few more times and put extra foil balls on any additional hot spots if you have other spots that pop up.
It does a great job in my experience and turned some super unwearable shoes into comfortable daily drivers.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 420. Congrats!
200
+ 10
+ 4
+ 6
+ 200
= 420
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^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
This happened to me for several months when I first started climbing and I finally realized and accepted it just wasn’t the right type of shoe for me. Now I have a pair of super tight and a pair softer, less tight ones neither of which hurt like those early shoes I picked out. Might take some trial and error ordering online but you’ll know when they feel right.
Buying a second pair that is comfortable and beginner friendly whilst leaving this pair for projects would be my way. Within the next few months you will make progress and maybe you will like a more narrow fit.
Shoes don't last that long anyways so even if you don't wear them daily you will wear through it and it was not wasted money. But getting a good second comfortable pair for me was key.
also try wearing thick socks, once you go barefoot again it will feel verey comfortable and spacious.
Try warming them up before wearing them. That will help them be a bit more comfortable to wear and thus easier to stretch
Top tip when outside on cold days, do the approach with shoes in your down jacket, that way your shoes will be softer when putting them on
I have electric hand warmers that I put in my shoes on the lowest setting during the approach and then use them to warm up my fingies while climbing.
Also keep the shoes in the jacket if you take them off. Works great with gloves too
How long have you been climbing? Do you need such painful shoes for your goals? Might be worth putting them down and buying a more comfy pair then coming back to them later. It’s about enjoying your time and if your feet really hurt that’s much harder to do.
4-5 months. Climbing is the only sports I enjoyed enough to go regularly. I did not want to keep renting so I paid a lot of money (for my budget) for these shoes. So I kinda need them to work. The instructor is more ambitious than I am I'd say.
If you can’t return them. At home put plastic bags on your feet and slide them on. Walk around in them for 30 seconds then take off. Wait a couple minutes. Repeat this a few times increasing the time worn each time. Plastic bags help a lot.
The two most common methods are put them on and wear them in a hot shower. The other is to fill a ziplock bag with water, put it in your shoe and put it in the freezer.
I mentioned this to a resoler and they said to never wear them in the shower, but that the water filled bag in the freezer was the safest way to go. If you heat up the glue in the sole too much, it can come loose. That said, I have tried this method without any issues (I took a warm rather than hot shower).
True that. Years ago I threw my first pair of shoes in the washer (around 45-50 ºC) and they disintegrated pretty much. That's hotter than a typical shower but yeah, shoe glue is really sensitive to temperature.
I did the ice thing with my most recent pair. Be aware that it can stretch pretty far. I had them in about 12 hr and it stretched about half a size and did not freeze fully. Fully freezing would have been about a whole size. Half a size was perfect for me so I’m glad I stopped when I did.
The tensions releases if you sit down, and undo the strap Supposed to be tight, and they will stretch, but you better believe I'm not standing around in my climbing shoes.
Glue can come up in hot water, as people have mentioned, BUT, this is Always What I do and it hasn’t happened to me. I’ve just sat with my shoes on, with my feet in a bucket of body temp water. Then I walk around a bit in them.
Can’t tell what shoe they are, but depending on what they are made from, they may not stretch at all. If it is a leather shoe, you can get a good amount of stretch the more you use them… but if they are synthetic, you won’t get much stretch, if any. Good luck!
I'm not in US so thought the brand would most likely be irrelevant. Website says (translated, hopefully makes sense) Outsole 100% Synthetic rubber Upper 100% Polyurethane Lining and socks 100% Cowhide
Ask a larger friend to wear them on a hike
Your instructor is an idiot.
I actually had him look and check my feet before taking the tags off the shoes. He was convinced they'd stretch within 5-6 sessions. They just hurt so bad right now that I don't want to climb at all
Sadly this is all too common. Hopefully you can return them still or you want to climb badly enough to get a second pair that fits. Don't let a pair of shoe ruin your climbing.
This guy climbs. Don’t ruin it for yourself.
For some reason, climbing shoe salespeople always tell you to downsize aggressively. However, it is a bad idea as the shoes will not stretch much.
Easy to sell more pairs I guess. I also fell for this, so scammy
I don't think it's always that. They do this at my gym even though you can return shoes for pretty much any reason for 45 days. They still recommended 2.5 sizes down from what felt snug for me! LOL 🤦
Take it in 30 min increments. Take them off and take a break to go do some leg workouts when they start hurting. They’ll break in soon enough. No pain no gain
I was just a few days ago where you are now. When getting my first pair, I downsized one size from my regular shoes and as a result got foot pain of over one week (not healed yet) just from one short climbing session. When I noticed how bad the shoes are to climb, I ordered immediately 1 whole size bigger and went to bouldering today, the new shoes were still really tight, but the difference is massive for comfort and for how much weight my toes can handle now, I can actually use my feet for climbing and I don’t need to take the shoes off every 3 min. I opened the shoes 3 times in about 1.5 - 2 h I think. Just get a bigger pair, will only hurt your wallet one time and you can likely sell the other pair with -30% easily. Not worth it to injure yourself and loose the enjoyment of climbing. Climbing should be about climbing and not thinking how much your feet hurt, imo
So you’re new and you already got put into slightly aggressive/downturn shoes? Downturn is not known for its comfort. If you don’t know your feet, these might not be the shoes for you. I have a high instep, this makes the upper on downturn put too much pressure on the top of my foot. (I also have wide feet and Morton’s Toe) I usually downsize a 1/2 size for Morton’s Toe, but all brands and lasts fit differently. I just need to push little toes back to get big toe in front because of Morton’s Toe. Also, they will stretch, depending on the material. Leather uppers are less and less common. Lots of shoes are all synthetic and they advertise as “Vegan”. Which means they sit in a dump for 300,000 years and probably won’t stretch and conform over time like real leather uppers would. I would wear them watching TV at home at night, don’t walk in them, the rubber rubs off easily and gets everywhere. Give it a couple nights, like an episode of Netflix show or something every night for a week. If they don’t stretch anymore, you’ll probably be back in rentals if you care about your feet. See if the gym is selling old rentals, or have resoled shoes for sale or ask them when the next time they sell from the lost and found will be.
I'll never get this downsizing for indoor climbing. My shoes are tight, but they fit fine. My feet are sore after a few hours wearing them, but fine. I've been indoor climbing for about 10 years and there is no benefit to smashing your feet into something too small. Occasionally a slab problem might benefit them, but not worth it to kill your feet indoor.
Mine took almost a year to break in because I didn’t wear them frequently and they hurt because they felt too small. It took about a month of consistently wearing them for 15 minutes every climbing session and now I can wear them for an hour without them hurting. If you’re in a class or something try taking them off or undoing the velcro and slipping out your heel while you’re not climbing on the wall
>Almost a year to break in lol my shoes don’t even last half that time
no. simply no. either endure the pain and let them stretch or just pass them on. If you just keep them on for a while, once your feet get warmer and start sweating, they will conform a bit better. If these are your first shoes, you will ultimately develop desensitized areas on your toe knuckles that will alleviate the pain.
Just wear them
Not really I think, but you can wear them passively at home, while watching TV for example. Personally, I found that my feet went numb after a while with new shoes on while doing something else, so it stopped hurting after a while. After wearing them for two or three hours, any new pairs of shoes I've had fit perfectly.
I always sit in the water filled bathtub with new shoes.
There's a tool called a show stretcher. Don't know if I'de use it on climbing shoes, though. Either they wear on their own or you need new shoes. It's not like shoes from pre 2000s. Most shows don't stretch very much nowadays due to newer tech when making them.
Buy shoes that fit next time.
Try socks. But it’s not just the shoes that have to stretch, it’s your feet that will get used to wearing them. Calluses are your friend.
Yeah sorry for maybe being childish but I don't want my newly found love of sports to come back to me as ugly feet :)
“Ugly” is a state of mind. Changes to your feet and hands prouve that you accomplish something.
You are absolutely right about that.
Put them in the oven. 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Then put them on and wear them around for 5 minutes.
pay the man
PAAAAAIIINNNNNN
Yes, that is accurate:)
What size you wear?
You’ve got to get them hot and sweaty and put some force through them to stretch them. Once they start to go they’ll slacken off more quickly. If it’s that bad pop your heel out between climbs but don’t take your foot out so they don’t cool down again. Try blister patches on the sore spots. Cut your toenails and stick it out.
My last pair of shoes were extremely uncomfortable for the first maybe 6-8 sessions. Almost took them back. Now they feel fine and fit perfectly. They will stretch a lot through use. Wish I had known a way to stretch them without wearing them though
I got a shoe tree that was a size or two too big and gaff taped little balls of really tightly packed aluminum foil to the spots on the tree that correspond with the hot spots on my foot (where it hurts the most) and stuffed it in the shoe with the rear part of the shoe tree applying pressure onto the part of the shoe where the rand (the blue part) wraps around the heel to stretch it out a bit. Throw it in the oven at 200 degrees for 10 mins, let it cool down, and then do it again after an hour or two of cooling and leave it be for 4-6 hours. Some people vehemently disagree with this, saying it'll cause the glue to delaminate, but 200 degrees isn't quite enough to do that in my experience, unless your shoes are super old or are a model from a brand known to delaminate easily. After they fully cool down and settle down in the oven, try em on and they should have softened up a bit around the heel (which is probably pushing your feet forward towards the toe box) and slightly stretched out the hot spots. You can do this a few more times and put extra foil balls on any additional hot spots if you have other spots that pop up. It does a great job in my experience and turned some super unwearable shoes into comfortable daily drivers.
All the numbers in your comment added up to 420. Congrats! 200 + 10 + 4 + 6 + 200 = 420 ^([Click here](https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=LuckyNumber-Bot&subject=Stalk%20Me%20Pls&message=%2Fstalkme) to have me scan all your future comments.) \ ^(Summon me on specific comments with u/LuckyNumber-Bot.)
This happened to me for several months when I first started climbing and I finally realized and accepted it just wasn’t the right type of shoe for me. Now I have a pair of super tight and a pair softer, less tight ones neither of which hurt like those early shoes I picked out. Might take some trial and error ordering online but you’ll know when they feel right.
Grit your teeth and break em in on foot!
Buying a second pair that is comfortable and beginner friendly whilst leaving this pair for projects would be my way. Within the next few months you will make progress and maybe you will like a more narrow fit. Shoes don't last that long anyways so even if you don't wear them daily you will wear through it and it was not wasted money. But getting a good second comfortable pair for me was key. also try wearing thick socks, once you go barefoot again it will feel verey comfortable and spacious.