Five Ten Team VXi

As the softest and most sensitive shoe our testers have ever put on their feet, the new Team VXi excelled at high-end bouldering and sport climbing in the gym and on a variety of rock types. Testers toed in on tiny edges in Rifle, Colorado, and the new Stealth MI6 rubber glued itself to everything, despite the slippery, polished limestone. “Try to make it slip off,” said one tester. “It just won’t.” It’s much softer than other rubber, allowing the user to wrap his toes around the smallest nubs. When aiming for mono-digit pockets, a second-skin feel called Elite Fit allowed for precision and confidence. The Team VXi also excelled in a surprising arena: slabby multi-pitch. “I could easily smear my foot on a micro-bump and know it was going to hold in places like Boulder Canyon and Yosemite,” another tester said.