Ondra and La Sportiva think resoling makes a better shoe

Adam Ondra has published his chat with Pietro Dal Pra, who has been working in La Sportiva for 20+ years, on AdamOndra.com. Interestingly, both Adam and Pietro, think that resoled shoes are better than a new one. La Sportiva has 41 official authorized resolers spread out in Europe including one at their factory in the Dolomites.

Adam: I’d also like to get to resoling the shoes. I climb almost every day and I consume 12 or 14 pairs a year. That’s a lot....The good thing is that it’s not only good for the environment, but it could actually be a better shoe. It could perform better!
Pietro: I think, after the first resoling, you’ll have the best shoes you can get. Because the upper part already has the shape of your foot, it’s already a bit softer, and we resole the sole. We are really pushing, as a company, in the direction of resoling. Because environmentally…we have to do it.
Adam: Maybe a good advice would be to send it for resoling before it’s completely destroyed.
Pietro: This is a very good point, actually. Many climbers would like to save some money, so they climb a little bit more, and a little bit more, and so on. But in the end, they would have saved more money if they had sent the shoe to be resoled earlier.