For my first review I wanted to talk about FiveTens line of hiking/tennis climbing shoes.

The picture shows the low top Guide Tennie for women. I bought these before a trip to Vegas (where I planned to hit any wall I could climb and wanted to be ready no matter where I was). Where they really showed their worth though was when I took a recent trip to Joshua Tree.

 The product description on the site says:

“This shoe can easily hike 10 miles into a climb, then ascend a 5.13 route. We’ve studied previous versions of our classic Guide shoes, and have created a new GT that’s better fitting, better performing and better looking than ever. The new last has a rocker, which makes walking efficient and comfortable making this a great choice for freerunners who need the added traction only Stealth^® rubber can provide.”

Normally I don’t buy into the hype of something, but man did these shoes live up to it! Rarely have I ever been able to really justify a purchase of shoes beyond they make my legs look great. ;)

I am a photographer as well as a climber, so I sometimes would see the perfect shot that I needed to climb to get to as I was walking around. These shoes? Were perfect for that. I could stick to the rock, with enough grip that I felt comfortable using my hands on the camera instead of the rock.

I managed to climb this with my Guide Tennies, camera over my back and get some great imagery…all the while feeling very confident in my movements.

So far I have not found a downside to these shoes, even the cost (about 100) wasn’t bad. They haven’t picked up a smell, they wipe off easily…and yeah they are actually super cute. Well, I am not exactly going to give up looking good just to be able to be a spider monkey am I? A girl has to have standards.

There are obviously men’s versions of these shoes. It was actually Adam who got me thinking about getting a pair. He had worn his when we were in Yosemite on a climbing trip and could just about walk on anything.

So for anyone who is looking for a shoe that they can walk around in (which I REALLY don’t recommend you do in normal climbing shoes) while also having the option to climb a tasty boulder when they stumble across one, I highly recommend checking out FiveTen’s line of hybrid shoes!

http://fiveten.com/