I just recently bought a pair of 5-10 Dragons, and I am seriously disappointed from all the hype built around these things. They are the worst shoe for heel hooking ever, and you cannot toe anything with these aggressive bastards, but I will admit the edging is great for this shoe. I talked to a few people at the gym and they had all agreed, one guy even said he threw his pair away. Anyone have a similar experience with a similar or different shoe. These climbing shoes are now for sale.

La Sportiva Nagos. Thought I'd save some money on shoes for the gym. Worthless shoes in every way. Stretched enough to wear with expedition socks though, so I guess I have super cold weather shoes now.

My first pair of EB's back in 70's,,, but then everyone hated the tight hi-top fit of those early shoes. Everything seemed better after those shoes.

Some montrails I purchased off steep and cheap. Felt super slick. I still blame them for the 30 footer I took off redgarden. Next up is my first pair of 5.10 Anasazi's. In general I'm not a fan of 5.10 rubber, but these were especially bad as my heel would not stay in the heel box, while my toes were tight.

La Sportiva "Mythos". Everyone said they were the most comfortable shoe on the the market... EVERYONE LIED. Nothing but pain, pain, and yes, even more pain.

Cole, do you by chance have a foot shaped similarly to that of a hobbit? Theres your problem.

Madrock Flash. $100 of shit.

Evolv defy

The first shoes I ever bought were the worst, Mad Rock Phoenix. "Old school" version circa 2004. Terrible rubber, painful heelcup, stained your feet urine-yellow, got stinky IMMEDIATELY, and I think the toebox would only fit someone with cloven hooves.

the montrail rubber was generally called 'craptonite' and 'sliptonite' by quite a few of their sponsored climbers. i had one pair and got rid of them pretty quick. i also had a pair of saltics that were abysmal.

i've had a few pairs of the mad rock flashes and used them for warmup routes or long moderate/endurance sessions in the gym, and they seemed ok for that task, given that they were 60 bucks or so.

the evolve defy is a shoe that is ok, but nothing better.

Boreal Bomba's . They are as sticky as wet ice.

Circa 1993 5.10 Razor, my first sport climbing shoes (fit was terrible for me). Thankfully replaced by the magical Boreal Vector, still my favorite shoe fitwise of all time.

I would have to give my vote to the Scarpa Magos. It's one thing to be unimpressed with a shoe that cost 20 or 50 dollars, as those clearly aren't meant to be high-end performance shoes, but the magos are like 150 dollars and billed as being super hot shit, and I just thought they were horrible, despite having good vibram rubber (on the toe anyway, the rubber on the heel was garbage). They were way too downturned and had no support in the middle of the shoe, so they edged like shit, AND they were very very rounded on the front... just a very weird experience trying to climb in them.

Shoes are a very personal thing and everyone is going to have different opinions about them. I also didn't really like the lace-up muiras, but I know there are plenty of people who love them (e.g. Adam Ondra).

An old pair of Scarpas. Don't know which ones, just know that they sucked two big boulders.

My first pair of shoes, a pair of Montrail Gymbos. The rubber was just crazy slick, and the shoes stretched way out.

Second least favorite were a pair of Montrail Wasabis until I got them resoled with Vibram Rubber. They are now my "comfy" shoes.

Boreals after the first generation Fires. Tried three different pairs. The heel cups were so tight it felt like my Achilles Tendon was being sliced.

My first pair was some God-awful Merrell's. They were like a stiffer version of Chuck Taylor's, and also had this retarded 2-shoelace thing that served no purpose. No friction at all, the rand would hang up in cracks, hard to put on, just awful (not to mention the frikkin 80's NEON)
These are my first 4 pairs of shoes, starting with those Merrell's.

I never throw anything away. My first 4 pairs in chronological order Submitted By: Mike Lane on Oct 24, 2008

I love how you can see your downsizing in each generation. Kendos being the smallest of course. I still have my pair.
My first pair was Five Ten Verticals and they were amazing and I wish I still had them.
The worst pair ever were the Scarpa Dominator lace ups. Looked good but killed my toes.
I am sorry to the starter of this post, the Dragons are the best shoes I own next Five Ten Spires. I can heel hook fish skin.....