Mod for my daughter's shoes?

My daughter (12) has begun complaining about soreness on the outside of the knuckle of her big toes. It's right where the triple cuts are in the top rubber (see pics). I've tried pushing at it w/ a broom handle, which hasn't really helped. I've also loosed the lacing at the front, which helps a bit. The inside fabric seems rough and she says it's a combination of the pressure and the roughness that hurts. Taping her toes hasn't helped.

Ideas? I'm thinking of cutting into the top rubber to help the fabric give more. But which direction? Also, can you suggest a way to reduce the roughness of the inside fabric.

These are Butora Advances.

what tape are you using.

normal climbers tape??

try a layer of Rocktape instead.   it's more flexible and more padded.

Get different shoes and tell her "Pain is Gain".

John Wilder wrote: They're the wrong shoes- time for new ones.

Fitting kinds can be really hard, because they don't have alot of experience thinking about how any shoe fits, let alone a climbing shoe. It's been my experience that the first two or three pairs they own are a total crap shoot on whether they work. After that, they start to get the idea and can give you decent feedback when being fitted.

As a coach, it can be tough convincing parents to not buy a shoe, but at the end of the day, if the shoe doesn't fit right, the kid will either demand a new one through pain and dislike of the current one, or they'll just stop climbing because it hurts. 

+1 to all that. You really don't want kids' shoes to compress their feet like some adults put up with. The growth plates on kids bones are still active, and "Yea bro, go 2.5 sizes down" could literally F up her feet for life. Besides, unless she's a phenom, the difference between a super tight "bouldering fit" and a relaxed "all day trad fit" isn't going to make a big difference in her enjoyment of the sport.

She's pretty good and has been climbing for several years. She likes the fit of these shoes, with the exception of that hotspot, and doesn't feel that her feet are too big for these shoes. I think I'll try cutting away the rubber and see where it goes.

 

Do you ever get up to new paltz? Rock and Snow has a little doodad they use to stretch shoes in a focused area. If you aren't going to be up there, picture a ball bearing about 12mm in diameter at the end of a steel rod. The rod anchored to a big piece of wood to keep it from moving, and is bent 90 degrees at the end so that you can get the rod down into the shoe, get the ball to the trouble spot, and stretch it out. I bet you could recreate this by anchoring some appropriately shaped tool (crescent wrench?) in a vise.
Caveat, the rubber is going to make it harder to stretch the leather, I think. 

Take her to see a podiatrist.  You don't want her to develop a bunion at that age.  She may need a higher volume shoe.

Podiatrist??? She has a hotspot on her shoe.

Andrew Hess wrote: Podiatrist??? She has a hotspot on her shoe.

You stated that "My daughter (12) has begun complaining about soreness on the outside of the knuckle of her big toes."  That would be an issue with her toe.  If it goes away or there isn't any deformation, then it probably isn't a big deal and you can just get her higher volume shoes.  But if it is the start of a bunion on her toe, you might want to get it looked at.

Cutting oper her shoe to give the toe more room may end up changing the structural integrity of the shoe, making it more difficult to edge right where she needs to edge.  At 12, she is probably starting to go through puberty, so she may need to upsize her shoes faster than they wear out.

Looks like an old mode shoes. Why not to try for a new gorgeous one. :)

I always got moccs as a kid and they stretch enough that she'll blow them out before they get too tight.

You might be able to get a dremmel tool with a sanding drum and grind off the rand a bit where it hurts.  We do the same thing in the heels of shoes by the achillies for those of us with heel issues.

My daughter is a 13-year-old comp climber. I can't even begin to count how many pairs of shoes we've gone through in her "career." I agree with John Wilder entirely about the difficulty of fitting kids. She's currently settled into Evolv Ashimas and Shamans that work right for her. 

If rough fabric is the issue then either new shoes or a pair of very thin socks. Like the thinnest runners socks. But based on where it "hot spot" is it looks like her big toe is getting pushed UP and into the top of the shoe. In which case she's likely outgrowing them.

I've stretched my own shoes before by putting a big ziploc full of water in them and then freezing it. The expansion of ice does a nice glacial thing on the shoes.

I've had issues with the liner fabric on shoes pushing against weird spots on my feet (in various versions of the 5.10 Anasazi line, don't really wear anything else). Usually, it's an area where the liner fabric has a crease or is bunched up in a way that creates lots of pressure focused over a small area. You can remove rubber on the outside to get the liner fabric to stretch and hopefully get rid of the crease, but I've tried that and haven't had much luck. I've had better luck by taking a razor blade and scraping over the crease (inside the shoe) a whole bunch to essentially wear down the high-spot on the liner.If you can't get a razor blade in there, some rough sand paper and a finger should do the trick. I'd try messing with the liner fabric before messing with the rand given that the rand is structural and the problem is probably inside the shoe. 

I took a single edge razor to the rubber, shaving off layers, and it really loosened up that part of the shoe. I'll know this weekend if it worked. So maybe I'll get another month or two of climbing out of them. :)

Update. Just finished 1 1/2 hours at the gym w/ her. Not a peep about her feet until I asked at the end. Then she gushed....sooo much better. Hot spot is gone--that area is now much softer.

The key: single edge razor.

Andrew Hess wrote: Update. Just finished 1 1/2 hours at the gym w/ her. Not a peep about her feet until I asked at the end. Then she gushed....sooo much better. Hot spot is gone--that area is now much softer.

The key: single edge razor.

I see a future for you in artisanal climbing shoe modification.

"Hess Shoes -- for when proper climbing shoes aren't good enough!"