Editors' Choice 2018: Butora Mantra Review

As the two testers who shared a pair of the lace-up, regular fit (orange), flat-lasted Mantras said, “These were a great trad shoe for long pitches or vertical to under-vertical terrain.” (The shoes also come in a green, wide-fit version, shown here.) The Mantras fit comfortably but were initially quite stiff (they have a full-length injection midsole) and took concerted break-in—10-plus pitches. Testers rocked them on trad and all-around terrain on granite and sandstone, and said the Neo Fuse sole was fantastic for edging and, eventually, smearing. “One might not want to do any technical heel hooking, but instead stand on the credit-card-edge alternative,” said our tester. The shoes also had good coverage (a mid-height cuff) for wider cracks.