![]() ![]() ![]() It’s also worth noting that while I have no experience with the Katana Velcro, the word on the street is that the two shoes have very little (if anything) in common. ![]() They have become my favorite shoes for warming up, as well as climbing on any terrain that isn’t steep. ![]() I think Sportiva has hit a home run with these shoes, as they offer the perfect blend of comfort and performance. As far as sizing goes, I wear an 12 street shoe, and for me a 43 is comfortable, 42.5 would be a tighter, more precision oriented fit that would likely improve how well they edge. I’ve found the XS Edge rubber to be plenty sticky, adhering to little dimples and edges with ease, though I’m admittedly not much of a rubber snob. However, those looking for a high performance all arounder should check out the Katana Laces for sure. That being said, they do fine on steep terrain, but aren’t as ideal as something like the Testarossa. The downturn isn’t nearly as aggressive as it looks in some of the photos, and after some use they flatten out pretty good. You can smear with confidence, but they are stiff enough you can edge with precision as well. Over the last couple of months, I’ve used them mostly on sandstone and limestone, and they excel at a wide variety of climbing styles, offering the perfect balance of sensitivity and stiffness. Those with wider feet probably wouldn’t find them as comfortable and are likely better off with something like the Scarpa Instinct, which has a wide toebox. On my narrow to normal width feet, the fit is snug with no dead spaces anywhere. Over time, they did conform well to the shape of my foot, and I have to say they are one of the most comfortable pair of higher performance shoes I’ve ever worn. Thankfully, however, because of the synthetic lining, these shoes don’t stretch much. When I first tried them on, I was concerned that I had gotten them too big, I mean how well could they climb, they didn’t even hurt my feet! Plus, chances were that after a couple days of use they’d get too baggy to be a good precision shoe. I was taking the new La Sportiva Katana Lace’s for a spin on some local choss, and my initial impressions were quite good. Hmm, maybe I don’t need to resole my Muiras after all. I cruised the easier start and then moved through the steeper section efficiently, confidently placing my feet on the little features which I could really feel with these new shoes. The business was 30 feet or so of gently overhung stone requiring some precise footwork on smallish holds. I think the Katana laces would work well as good all-around shoes, if you are looking for one pair that would do it all, but I haven't used them enough at this point to say definitively.I hadn’t been on this particular route yet this year, and was psyched to give it a go. For most trad climbing, TC Pros are fairly comfortable for me. If you're mostly going to be sport climbing, I'd probably recommend looking into something like Miuras or Otakis. I also recently purchased a pair of Katana lace version for climbing thinner cracks, and I think they would work well for sport climbing, too. I don't like them for harder outdoor sport climbing, so I've been using a pair of Miuras that a friend gave me for that. I wasn't a huge fan of TC Pros in the beginning because the soles felt too thick and stiff, but now really like them for gym climbing and for most outdoor trad climbing that I do. I used to use them for all types of climbing, but I've begun to use different shoes for different purposes. I'm repairing my two old ratty pairs of Katana VS's for another use, but will be retiring them after this round. ![]()
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