I love climbing and bouldering, never mind that I am simply mediocre at it. That doesn’t mean that I can’t have nice shoes. I had been using a Scarpa Reflex for the past few years. But I got to a point I wanted a slightly more aggressive shoe. Now back in the day I bought my climbing shoes like 2 US sizes down and pretended it made me a better climber. I didn’t want to go through that horrible torture again. I bought the Arpia 1/2 euro size down. I am normally a 45 in Scarpa and I got these in 44.5. I have to say the fit is perfect and the performance improvement is noticeable.
What do I mean by more aggressive? The shoe has a downturned toe, more sticky rubber on the roe and a more pronounced edge.
These are super easy to get on and off if you are working a boulder project and for my wide feet just fine for some long laps on those traverses.
So while I can’t climb like Alex Puccio, I can at least have the same shoes. If you are looking to up your bouldering shoe game, get a pair of these.