Review on La Sportiva Skwama Mens Rock Climbing Shoes: Enhance Your Climbing Performance! by Ronald Orear

I've been following this pair of shoes since La Sportiva announced them last year. I have duck feet and really like the La Sportiva Genius' wider toe box. Skwama may be cheaper, but it's a pretty big improvement. Pros: The S-shaped heel is great, it's no wonder you won't suddenly jump from V5 to V7. However, the S-shaped heel keeps the heel stiff and in place. I feel absolutely confident when doing a heel hook. I also find that the heel is a bit narrower than the Genius. I have thin ankles. This is a very tight fit. The toe is great. As mentioned before, I have duck feet. The Skwama toe box is just as comfortable as the Genius. I don't feel any lateral compression at all. One feature I would have liked to see in the Genius would be a sharper front toe. Those little pockets on the plastic are hard to reach with your foot. The Swama Finger Box has a point that looks like a solution. This makes it much easier to get your toe caught in small pockets or on tiny hooks. I feel very confident with this frontend. The rubber insert at the top of the front toe area is also very comfortable for the toe hook. I've tried this feature on several tasks at the gym. The rubber keeps you in place well. I never slipped or lost my balance. Cons: The shoes are huge! I wore the 39 Genius and found them to be a little too small. So I first ordered Skwama in size 39.5. (My street shoe size is 8-8.5). They feel like my everyday shoes in size 39.5. Then I tried size 39, still too big. The 38.5 is about the same size as the 39 Genius. I actually compared the 38.5 Skwama to my 39 Genius. They are about the same size. I wish La Sportiva had better support for consistent shoe sizes. Conclusion: I definitely recommend this pair of shoes for indoor bouldering. La Sportiva doesn't distinguish very well between Solution and Skwama. The former were the best bouldering shoes so far. I have never tried the solution and did a lot of research online to compare them. From what I've learned, choose Skwama if you have wider feet and Solutions if you have narrower feet. This seems to be the main driving force behind shoe selection. In purely functional terms, I think the S-Heel is an improvement. Overall I would say the Skwama is better than the Genius with sport bouldering specific characteristics. PS Another feature I didn't mention is the small cut-out on the lower front of the shoe. La Sportiva markets this feature as something that expands, contracts, and fits better around your feet. I honestly didn't notice a huge difference. My feet didn't hurt as much after the first session in shoe size 38.5. Maybe the cut out made the shoe fit my foot better? It's difficult to say.