Profile

These feel like they have more in common with a TC than a Katana to me, so that's what I'll mostly compare them to.  I got these for my most recent trip to Yosemite (where I wore them for ~7000' of climbing) to replace TCs and I'm pretty psyched on them.  They strike a good balance of comfort:performance ratio, and worked well on the slabby to vertical climbs I was doing into the low 11s. 

The new TCs chafe the tops of my toes in a way the old ones didn't, so I was looking for a replacement all arounder for granite climbing.  I got the same size as my TCs and find these much more comfortable.  The heel rand is slightly more relaxed so I never had the discomfort on my achiles I would get after several days in the TCs, but still felt my toes were held into the front of the shoe just fine.  Similar stiffness.  The toe on the Katanas is more chiseled than the blunt TC toe, so the rubber sticks out slightly past my actual toe which makes it easier to stuff a little rubber into thin cracks for jamming.  This means a little less edging power at the tip of the toe, but the inside and outside edges give similar edging performance to a TC.  I rarely purely edge at the tip of my toe on these kinds of climbs anyways, generally defaulting to more of a smedge, so this was a good tradeoff for my taste.  Once these broke in the fit hit a sweet spot where I would wear them without socks for slightly more room and comfort, then if I wanted to tighten and stiffen them up a little for more edging performance I would put my socks in them.  This was nice on multipitches.  I also really enjoy the velcro on multipitches, being able to get in and out of my shoes quickly makes me much more likely to take them off at belays and save my feet over a long day.