To some, climbing is a hobby; to others, it's an all-consuming obsession. For the latter group, there's the Scarpa Chimera. This supple Italian masterpiece offers unrivaled sensitivity in an aggressive design that's ready for your overhanging mega project. Our testers were particularly impressed with its awesome comfort and fit right out of the box. It is a specialized shoe. However, that's best suited for bouldering and shorter sport routes. There are better choices for exclusive crack or..." go to full review

Add the Oracle to the ever-expanding list of outstanding climbing shoes. It features a slew of innovative features that enhance performance and comfort, while still being priced for a few dollars less than its closest competitors. Although it's not the best shoe to chose for pockets or cracks, for all other disciplines, it performs excellently.go to full review

With a reasonable price tag, an aggressive shape, and a soft midsole, the Hiangles are a great high-performance shoe for gym climbing, sport climbing, and bouldering. Though they did not necessarily excel in any of our metric comparisons, they performed decently overall, making them a fairly good all-around shoe for sport climbing.go to full review

For steep climbing, bouldering, and gym climbing, the Shakra is a great option. They are easy to take on and off, provide comfort for hours, and perform at a high level in most styles of climbing. The Shakras are soft in the midsole, so they don't do great on dime-edges or super-technical slabs, but otherwise, these shoes are a good option for the all-arounder.go to full review

The Scarpa Arpia is a comfortable Velcro slipper with a slight downturn and a soft midsole. We liked these shoes for bouldering and gym climbing, where we kept our shoes on for a few hours during a session. Their easy-to-use Velcro strap and quick break-in period made the Arpias some of the more comfortable shoes we've tested, but they still managed to maintain a high level of performance due to their sticky soles and slightly aggressive shape.go to full review

We found these shoes to fit comfortably on all day endeavors, while still inspiring confidence in small footholds. We had a few hang-ups with the lacing system, but overall the downsides were small. We also appreciated that these shoes are made right here in California, only a few hours' drive away from the granite crucible where most of our testing occurred. Though they are not well-known or easy to find in retail stores, the Up Lace seemed like a great investment to us.go to full review

The La Sportiva Genius is purpose-built for the rigors of steep climbing, and in our testing it performed exceptionally well on this sort of terrain. We wore it while bouldering, sport climbing, and even ascending bouldery overhanging trad climbs, and loved the generous downturn and incredibly sensitive construction. On steep limestone, the shoe was responsive on toe and heel hooks. While edging and toeing in on steep conglomerate and sandstone, the Genius stuck well to miniscule footholds...." go to full review

“Kevlar” was the word that jumped to my mind the first time I handled Black Diamond’s new Solution Guide Harness—the outer fabric, dubbed Super Fabric by BD, felt like it would be damn-near bulletproof. It isn’t, to be sure; but after putting it through the wringer on real rock, my first impressions proved correct: this thing is pretty dang granite-proof, sandstone-proof, limestone-proof, etc. There’s no rock that’s going to tear or abrade this thing.  go to full review

This is actually the first Boreal shoe I’ve ever worn, and thus far I’ve quite enjoyed it. Built on the same last as the Boreal Satori, the Ninja shoe is exactly what you want out of a slipper—easy to put on while still snug and soft, with a nice contoured fit. The tongue’s elasticity allows for a quick break-in, and you don’t need to worry about throwing out your back while getting it on for the first few sessions.go to full review

I took the Tendon Master Pro 9.2 to Wyoming for some good old-fashioned summer-time sport climbing. Out of the “box,” the Master Pro never kinked or twisted in annoying ways, even when lowering through drop-ins and quick links. Even better, the bold and wide black middle marker is hard to miss.go to full review