Butora Altura hi-top shoes... anyone tried them?

Chris D, funny you should ask, but I just posted a review on the Mantras.

Why Mantras? Because the Alturas are still not wide enough for me to put onto my feet. In comparison, the Mythos definitely fit, while the Mantras fit but are not nearly as good for me.

Locker wrote:THREAD DRIFT: "Adidas has not done well by them. From my perspective (A resolers), I see very little difference. Shoes are of the same quality and design. Other than the CHEAP aspect being taken out of the mix, what in particular do you feel that Adidas is doing wrong or bad?

I think maybe you're seeing a lot of their discontinued shoes as a resoler? Their site might not be right, but I don't see the coyote among their current offerings

fiveten.com/us/climbing/neu…

They have new lasts, they've discontinued my favorite shoe (though I have three pairs of them in various stages of death and dying) and their new shoes are made on a new, narrower last than the old line. I don't see anything in their current line that compares to the coyote/spire, except maybe the anasazi guide?

Butora reps at the local gym had pairs to demo. They destroyed my heel with a sewing joint around the Achilles' tendon. I will not be buying any unless I get to demo the model for the day (or buy from REI).

Drifting...
Lowa makes the most comfortable climbing shoes I have ever worn. They demo at an Arkansas Outdoor Rendezvous every October for participants. The aggressive shoes have roomy toe boxes.

Drifting further...
Sad to hear Adidas owns 5.10. Freakin sellouts. Thanks for all the info from Locker on the resolve aspect. That topic deserves its own thread.

I'm a big fan of my Alturas - so much better than the TC Pros for my foot shape. Hasn't stretched much, but the weird ridge on the heel cup someone mentioned above went away after one long day climbing.

Faulted Geologist wrote: Drifting further... Sad to hear Adidas owns 5.10. Freakin sellouts.

In your head...
Cole: "No I don't want a very nice financial future for my family from all the hard work I've done over the years. Shove it Adidas."

Dude stfu, you don't know what you're talking about.

Any recommendations on sizing? Their site says to go with your street shoe size.

I think I was a half size smaller than street shoes. So far I like mine as well. They are heavy and the rubber isn't amazing, but they are good overall. Pretty boxy for anything thin but nice and protective for larger cracks

I sized street shoe size in a wide-fit Altura. My toes are all fairly flat except for the second toe (shoe tapers pretty aggressively), but doesn't crunch my little toes. You should really try these on in person for a good fit. What I have found it that the heel cup is fairly narrow and somewhat shallow, which is good for my small heels.
With such a comfy fit, the shoe edges REALLY well. I don't see any reason to downsize unless your foot is quite narrow and you don't fill out the width in street shoe size. All downsizing will bring you is pain due to the extensive rubber on top of the toebox. The upper is lined leather and there is so much rubber, midsole, and padding that your foot won't have much of a chance to stretch the leather. The padding will likely pack out, giving you more room in width over time. However, don't expect this very stiff shoe to stretch at all in length.
I just started using these shoes for gym climbing so I can wear out the shitty rubber (which is actually surprisingly good for greasy gym holds, perhaps due to its softness and deformability) to good effect. The edging is phenomenal and they beat the hell out of my junky old mocs. I will probably resole with a stiffer, stickier rubber like Stealth Onyxx so the rubber doesn't roll off edges, at which point I might start using these shoes for more than just wide crack and relieve them from gym duty.

Dude, I think you can edge better barefoot than most people can in mocs :)

I would be very curious to see what that shoe would be like with a full length onyx resole. I didn't like how it felt kind of soft in the midfoot, but full length harder rubber on a shoe that actually fit me, hmmm.....

Chad Miller wrote:Any recommendations on sizing? Their site says to go with your street shoe size.

Street Shoe size

I think my sorta long search for a good all-day trad shoe ended with the Butora Alturas. (TC Pros appeared at first to be the Holy Grail, but they don't make 'em big enough.) First, though, some qualifiers...1)I am just learning my way around all the new shoe types and my lizard-brain memory is of EBs and Fires and how great they were, 2)I don't climb really hard stuff (yet), 3)I have only used them around Boulder/Golden, CO (granite, sandstone, basalt) for a few months, and 4)my feet are big. Consider all those things when you interpret my review. YMMV. So...as to fit, I first tried a size 14 Wide (my street shoe varies from 13 to 14; my hiking boots are size 14). I found that they felt good out of the box, but they stretched a bit--especially in width (leather uppers?)--making them too sloppy to be very effective. I next tried a 13.5 Narrow and thought they might be too tight upon trying them on out of the box. But, they have stretched out a bit in width and stretched maybe 1/8 size in length and now fit really great--or maybe it's just that they molded well to my feet. They fit like a glove and I can keep them on for hours at a time without feeling tortured. I would guess smaller sizes would have less of a tendency to stretch/mold themselves. The sole rubber is softer than the Edge rubber I was using before (Scarpa Techno X shoes). I think I actually prefer the softer Butora rubber and will probably have them resoled with some 5.10 Stealth stuff. (Rock and Resole here in Boulder can't yet get the original Butora rubber.)There's a trade-off here, though, as the soft rubber wears quickly and may not edge on dime-sized flakes as well as you would like--but they seem to friction/smear nicely. The Butoras are a stiff and boxy shoe, so if you want something super-sensitive so as to be one with the rock, this may not be the shoe for you. On the other hand, they do well and are reasonably comfortable in cracks from thin hands on up. I like them enough that I'll probably get a second backup pair and get them broken in as well.

Reviving this after some folks recommended the Altura or TC Pros from a previous post regarding 5th metatarsal pain due to a screw in my foot. Anyone have experience with Katana Laces? I wear a 42.5 in those which is nice and snug with a slight curl in my toes, I was thinking of going 43 in the Alturas. Nowhere in Reno carries them but I could try on some TC Pros and size the Alturas off that. Anyone out there tried both to comment on sizing (mainly length) differences between the two?

JoeyJa wrote: So, how do they stretch after break in? If I size comfortably, will they get sloppy?

I bought the low-top version a little tight, thinking that they would stretch.  They did not. 

For reference I wear a 45.5 TC Pro, 47 Mad Rock Shark 2.0 and I bought the Butora in 46.5. 

Thanks! So maybe a full size or more up from TC Pros then huh?

For me, I'd go 1.5 sizes up from my TC pros.  I've had the Mantra for almost a year now and they still give me pain in my middle toe at 1 size up from the TCP.  I can wear socks comfortably in my TCP for several hours.  

Great thanks, I might stick with 1 size up since I’m not needing to wear socks in these.

Hah. I don't usually wear socks. Climbed a 20F day, so wore socks that day.  Just to give a reference for the size difference being a roomy 1.5sizes in my opinion, I'd never get my foot in the butora's with a sock on.  

Paul L wrote:

Hah. I don't usually wear socks. Climbed a 20F day, so wore socks that day.  Just to give a reference for the size difference being a roomy 1.5sizes in my opinion, I'd never get my foot in the butora's with a sock on.  

For what it’s worth I went with 1.5 euro sizes up fo from the TC pros. My toes are flat in the TCs in size 43 and I had to go up to 44.5 (US11 according to Butora) for my toes to lay flat. Out of the box the TCs feel more comfortable but the rubber on these cover a sensitive spot on my 5th metatarsal whereas the TC Pros only cover this spot with the upper. If the Alturas relax and form to my foot slightly I think it’ll be a great option vs the TC Pros. 

Same. I went 1.5 Euro sizes bigger in the Alturas compares to TC - which came out to my street shoe size in the Alturas.

I like but don't love the TCs and they kill my heal so I tried the Alturas. I like the Alturas way, way less even after repaving with Onyxx. They are a poor combo of insensitive (and I like stiff shoes), uncomfortable, and the heel "pocket" isn't really a pocket but an almost straight line up and down.

If anyone wants to buy a pair of size 9.5 wide Alturas with Onyxx rubber and less than five days of use, PM me.

I agree that the Alturas are pretty insensitive. My Boostics are much more sensitive, even though they are stiffer in the toe and more supportive throughout the foot than the Alturas. The Alturas also don't break in much to form to the foot well, and still apply some pressure to the metatarsal. The high torsional stiffness makes them clunky for jamming cracks. They are somewhere between cumbersome and useless in my experience for anything smaller than tight hands. I use them specifically for offwidth climbing these days, for which they work fine with Onyxx. However, they did get much, much softer wearing out the original rubber before the resole. They have considerable flex in the ball of the foot now.

They would probably be much better resoled before the shoe is broken in so they are still stiff.

I sent an email to Butora with some suggestions for improving the shoe. It would be cool if there were some legitimate competition on the market for the TC Pro for wider feet. Unfortunately, the TC Pro is the only stiff high-top shoe on the market that actually climbs well*. The new Evolv General is a joke. It has the toe profile of a mountaineering boot and is a fairly narrow shoe. It seems like it would edge well, but I doubt you could get it into a crack smaller than #3 camalot.

*If they fit you and you can size them tight enough.

Unfortunately, I think my shoes will last me for years since I only use them to climb difficult wide cracks. Maybe you should post them up for sale.