La Sportiva Genius: 1 + 1 = 3

Some years ago, La Sportiva invented the No Edge meaning that the sole goes around the toe. By the round look, it seems the No Edge sole gives less support once standing with straight legs on a slab on a micro 90 degree sharp edge, compared to a brand new normal shoe. For the other 99 % of holds and situations, it seems that the No Edge sole is equal or better compared to a normal shoe. Their previous No Edge shoes have been pretty extreme but know La Sportiva present Genius which is more like in between, taking the best from the two different types of shoes. In practice, this means that Genius feels like a normal high prestanda shoe with the No Edge technology. Compared to their last No Edge shoe, Futura, Genius feels a bit stiffer and the heal is a bit more baggy and more optimised for heal-hooking. Further more, it has laces which is located a bit to the side and maybe this is the reason why the shoe feels a bit curved making it easier to turn your foot as you are starting to knee-drop. Genius also has the patented P3 and like with all La Sportiva shoes, you can use a tight size but even so it feels comfortable. Overall it feels like the best ever high performance shoe by La Sportiva and here is what Pietro Dal Pra, who has been the developer creating the No Edge technology, says: - It seems that the No Edge gives you the chance to climb in a much more fluent and natural way. That's why the No Edge shoes are super for bouldering and onsight climbing, because the shoe adapts and sticks to the wall even if you are very fast and not totally precise, and even with less weight on it. (Adam Ondra has climbed his two 9a onsights with Speedster, No Edge, and all his other hard onsight in the last two years are with No Edge). Check the video with Pietro Dal Pra explaining about the new Genius shoe during the last Friedrichshafen fair.