Speedster review

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That little text is a simple story, the story of what happened with my climbing when I started using the speedster.

As a climber, I’ve been using my shoes in many rock and plastic holds with the same request to them: help me to use the footholds in the best way, cause they are a crucial element in climbing. As a competitor I had additional needs: give me safe feelings of my footholds.

For all theses reasons, I’ve been reluctant changing my favorite climbing shoes to another pair, especially the new ones. Nevertheless, it happened often because La Sportiva’s new shoes were always providing some new advantages. The Testarossa, the Solution are the kind of shoes that really helps you to make a full use of any footholds. However, they were always proposing the same basic principle of a right angle edges, you were gaining a true efficiency but you were not experiencing some new feelings.

And then appears the Speedster. My first reaction was, “wow a new Mantra, it will be funny again to play on plastic, but rock session will remain a Solution or Testarossa monopole”.

After several climbing sessions I was impressed by their adaptability and the way you can use it. Basically you were comfortable on almost all type of footholds, from big sloppy ones to the very small “foot crimps”. After some others climbing sessions, it appears that I was moving differently on these footholds, I was, on many position, also more relaxed because I was putting my feet differently and my body tension was therefore impacted.

What happened? Having no edges on the shoes make that you cannot try to match the two angles (the shoes one with the hold one), it’s not anymore a mechanical question. What you do with the Speedster is putting on the main part of the hold the “pressure point” of your foot (often your bigger toe, not the tip of the shoes) then you “wrap up” the rest of the hold with the foot. By doing so you can lower your eel, reduce the tension of your calf and consequently your global body tension. If you’re more relaxed, it will be easier to manage some toughs climbing situations.

It’s clearly not easy to explain but what I can say is that the principle of these shoes make possible many new positions and therefore push you to think about what you do of your feet. Which is a basic question you ask to climbers, from beginners to expert, when you want them to progress.

My advice after this small story is: don’t make any case of the “a priori” you can have of a shoes that does not look classic and seems designed for athletes, it may reveal some nice surprise and bring you much more fun in climbing.

Jerome Meyer