TC pro's new and improved?

Ashort wrote:

What's up with the light green hard plastic piece that the laces go through towards the toe of the shoes? I tried some of these and that hard plastic piece painfully dug into my toe. Seems really uncomfortable to jam with that there. Has anyone tried these for a period of time and can report on if that piece loosens up at all?

Also, is it possible to remove this thing?

That’s supposed to protect the laces when jamming

Why is it on the medial side of the foot then?  My laces wear out on the little toe lateral side, I don’t think they have frayed where this thing is. 

Sooo should I get some? 

Don't own original TC pros, the tongue annoyed me. 

I love Katana laces for hard cracks/mixed with face climbing, otherwise I wear Grandstones for easier cracks which are great and sticky but kinda soft and don't edge super well.

Are the new TCs downturn more like the Katana or less pronounced? 

Having gone through a barrel full of the originals, a pair of halfway V2 protos, and the new 2.0, I feel confident saying that if you blindfolded me I would have no idea which ones are on my feet. All the changes are durability and aesthetically focused with performance being deliberately untouched (in a good way). I have always found slight variability in fit from pair to pair. I think its due to their being handmade vs factory assembly line. 

FWIW, I find the TCs to turn up a bit like most other classic LS shoes such as the Miura and Katana Lace rather than maintain flat/downturn . For harder climbing, including big wall and Indian Creek, I  often wear the Otaki - still a wide enough last to jam comfortably while giving knife edge edging power. Check out Drew Smith's recent [amazing] photos of Nik Berry doing the same on the Dihedral Wall...

The new TC Pros climb great, the tongue is fixed and the inside material feels softer to me. 

K Go wrote:

Sooo should I get some? 

Don't own original TC pros, the tongue annoyed me. 

I love Katana laces for hard cracks/mixed with face climbing, otherwise I wear Grandstones for easier cracks which are great and sticky but kinda soft and don't edge super well.

Are the new TCs downturn more like the Katana or less pronounced? 

The new TCs just don't work for me, but the tongue was marginally better than the original IMO. I jut picked up some katanas and i am sold, the tongue feels like slipping on a glove. They're really a perfect trad show for red rock climbing. 

Ashort wrote:

The new TCs just don't work for me, but the tongue was marginally better than the original IMO. I jut picked up some katanas and i am sold, the tongue feels like slipping on a glove. They're really a perfect trad show for red rock climbing. 

Bummer. I might still go try some on. I desire a stiffer pair of high tops for granite multipitch, esp when it's hot as the C4 on the grandstones just melts.

K Go wrote:

Bummer. I might still go try some on. I desire a stiffer pair of high tops for granite multipitch, esp when it's hot as the C4 on the grandstones just melts.

My go to stiff high top trad show was the ballet gold but after they stopped making them board lasted I gave up on them. 

Try the acopa JB, they looked like great shoes, they just didn't fit my feet. 

Ashort wrote:

Try the acopa JB, they looked like great shoes, they just didn't fit my feet. 

Having tried the JB and the Legend, if one didn't fit you should try the other, I'd love a pair of Legends but the JB's didn't quite work for me.

MauryB wrote:

.... I have always found slight variability in fit from pair to pair. I think its due to their being handmade vs factory assembly line. 

I've found this to be the case as well. Significant variation between sizes so trying on one pair in the store and saying how the fit has changed (compared to a well broken-in pair) is not overly valuable to me.

Jon Rhoderick wrote:

Why is it on the medial side of the foot then?  My laces wear out on the little toe lateral side, I don’t think they have frayed where this thing is. 

I was wondering about the same thing -- why reinforce the big toe side? 

(photo from upthread)

Not sure if my use pattern is all that different from other people's, but even just in theory, one would think the small toe side gets more contact with the rock than the big toe side from most hand-sized jamming. In my case, it's ALWAYS the small toe side that gets completely worn through and fails to hold the shoe lace. I can't help but wonder if someone from the design team handed the manufacturer a drawing and they made a mistake by putting the reinforcement on the wrong side. 

Either that, or the pros who help brands design products really have different user experiences than the average (i.e. most) users. I doubt any of them (say, Tommy Caldwell) ever needs to wear their shoes down like we do. After all, they get their shoes for free and can bring 7 fresh pairs up on one climb. I think all the brands should recruit average Joes and Janes to join their design team to provide more realistic feedback. (La Sportiva, Black Diamond, etc... if you are listening, I'm happy to help, even if pro bono.)

I’ve never understood the fact that a “crack” shoe has more rubber over the big toe but not the little toe.  The Grandstones are the same however I have a pair of prototype Grandstones that have coverage over the little toe area so you know they at least thought about it.  

My guess is that is aesthetic, if you don’t lace them tight, older TC pro’s flex right at the lace tab that is now covered with stiff plastic.

Why do the toes blow out on the TC pros? My old pair did this. Can these be stitched if the rest of the sole is still good?

abandon moderation wrote:

Or I've seen people with bunions wear a hole through around their bunion.

Yep. I have a bad bunion in the left foot, and the left shoe disintegrates extremely fast from the pressure point. I've been searching for my soulmate (I mean, shoe mate) for years who always blows out their right shoe of size 37.5 (or 37) first so I can send them my widowed right shoes. I hope the new TC Pro somehow last longer. 

I just tried on the new style TC Pros. The silly plastic yellow lace cover thing, and where it attaches under the rand feels very bulky and kind of uncomfortable compared to the old shoes. Does that break in and feel better? Everything other than that seems great.

Yeah it does get better. I have several pairs of the original TC Pros and recently got the new version. The new ones were very uncomfortable the first couple times I wore them but quickly broke in and now are as comfy as the originals. I don’t notice that little yellow thing anymore (though it’s possible I just got used to the new pressure point).

The yellow bit of extra lace protection is actually clutch, as that is a very standard failure point in the last model. Particularly with offwidth, with the older model, either what you thread the lace through, or the lace itself, would break at that point. Whatever you loose in comfort, (which is nothing to me) you for sure make up for in improving that failure point. Maybe it doesn’t bother me that much because I almost always wear socks and I don’t aggressively side them down.