What was the first pair of climbing shoes you ever owned?

EB's.

La Sportiva Syncro

Royal Robbins Big Wall shoes (boots)

Deimos wrote:La Sportiva Syncro

Same. I still have them. They need some serious repair work, but I think they could be made to be very usable once again.

These were awesome shoes for edging, and pretty good for cracks too. Way WAAAAY better than the mythos I have (and hardly ever wear).

La sportive pythons.............. great shoes got them used best $70 ever spent love them!

Mad Rock Flashes. Surprisingly good for being a size too big. I miss the heal on those.

Boreal Ballet Golds. Bought 'em 12 or 13 years ago, still have 'em as I usually wear something with a lower-cut ankle. They almost-but-not-quite look new.

I started in 1971 in Kronhoffer Kletterschues, but soon changed over to the blue RR's.  Many years of climbing followed at Seneca, the Gunks and Yosemite.  As other shoes came out over the years, I tried them but wore my RR's into the 80's.  I've climbed in EB's, PA's, RD's, Fires, various Merrel rock shoes...  Most recently my favorite was the Evolv Axiom, which they have unfortunately discontinued.  

The photos show me leading friction on the Glacier Point Apron in the mid 80's in my RR's.  The second photo shows me on the pitch 10 traverse on Royal Arches the year after the rotten log fell.  Unfortunately, I don't have photos with earlier climbs and shoes.

Hank Caylor wrote: The REI catalog(which was 3 pages 1983) only sold red or blue Asolos, I got the blue. But I learned in PA's. Fun topic.

Same here.  Bought mine at Kelty Mountaineering in Glendale CA. 

The first pair I owned were purple La Sportiva Mythos, bought in June 1994.

The first pair I wore were Boreal Ballets. 

Raichle Mountain boots, then EBs. 1975.

5.10 Summits, c. 1994.

Not a great shoe, but way better than my skate shoes.

Chuck Taylor's !
La Sportiva Taos was my first real shoe.   

I started with Red Wing logging boots with Vibram soles. graduated to EB's and then eventually Calmas which were a game changer.

EBs. 

Mine were RD's, I think we got them cheap at Basecamp in Philadelphia. They were just the thing ( NOT! ) for the slick shale at Stover, so I saved up and got EB's. Then I would save the EB's for " hard routes ". 

Secondhand La Sportiva Mariachers.

Tom Stryker wrote:They were just the thing ( NOT! ) for the slick shale at Stover 

Well I’ll be. Ralph Stover is rock? I thought it was dry mud

Normally I'd say something about resurrecting a 4 year old thread......but this one should be timeless.

Boreal Fire's

Hawkins Masters. Late '60s. Leather upper, quite pokey and Ok for positive holds and cracks, though v. poor friction by modern standards. An improvement on my Woolworth's thin soled gym shoes.