TX4 Failure?

Has anyone had an issue with the upper of the TX4 tearing after little use? Got these NWT and had this hole in my shoe after less than 15 miles of moderate hiking. No foot jamming or apparent cause. 

Whoa, no. I hike and climb in mine a lot and haven’t had anything like this happen. The laces suck tho.

Agreed, that looks extremely unusual for 15 miles.

I also agree the shoe laces are the weak link for normal wear and tear. 

Yes, I have had exactly the same issue with a pair of TX4. I don’t understand the hype and the claimed burleyness of these shoes. They are fragile!

Stefan Jacobsenwrote:

Yes, I have had exactly the same issue with a pair of TX4. I don’t understand the hype and the claimed burleyness of these shoes. They are fragile!

That's disappointing - the other shoe is totally fine which makes me think it's a material QC issue. Maybe similar to the tears folks are seeing in Adidas 5.10 shoes?

For me, left and right shoe developed the same holes over a short time. 

I'm a TX2, 3, 4 series addict. Unfortunately, I think La Sportiva is overplaying his hand. In my opinion, La Sportiva has been concentrating more and more on hall climbing and fashion, then on real rock climbing lately. The quality of their Approach shoes (to be able to walk to the hall) is excellent. Unfortunately, I have to say that the quality of the TX4's leather has become depressing bad. Of the last two pairs with me, the leather is also torn. Of the 7 pairs before, the sole was gone, the grip was gone, but no problem with the leather.

TX4 without GTX is sold out (EU). The TX Guide is horribly narrow and painful.

Out of poverty I am trying now Scarpa Mescalito. Less comfortable, does anyone have experience with the TX5 compared to the TX4 ???

Nope. Bought these in December 2019. They are on my foot this morning. Definitely a lot more than 15 miles of approach hikes in these. 

Bummer to see a company whittle away at what used to be a good product.

I'm trying to send LaSpo a warranty request. Anyone had luck with them honoring a defective product?

Big Redwrote:

Bummer to see a company whittle away at what used to be a good product.

I'm trying to send LaSpo a warranty request. Anyone had luck with them honoring a defective product?

I sent back a pair of TC pros that had a difference in quality between the shoes (leather quality/texture, glue peeling on just one, laces were a different length??) And got a new pair. Pretty good considering I used them for a season and put a hole in both of them

Of course I could have bad luck. N=1 (2, 3 or more). I never had issues with TX4’s, Tx3’s, TX2’s (leather and nylon). Very comfortable and if one uses gear it wears out. By the way the leather on my new TX4 GTX looks fine though (less rough).

I had this happen to my tx4s. I sent a picture to sportiva and they said the leather might have been scored in production. They sent me a new pair no charge.

I always shoo goo the tops and sides when i get them. I actually do that with pretty much all my shoes and they last forever.

I know someone who had this exact same issue, leather split open within a couple of weeks of doing a whole load of fuck all in his shoes. Seems to be a patterning issue using a little too much belly of the cow (worst area for leather) the the suede just falls apart under flexing. 

LaSpo replied to the warranty request and I should be getting new shoes... 

Never had that happen but this is the second pair (both shoes too) I’ve had the lacing system fail on. I really love the whole family of TX shoes and have owned almost all of them but the laces are unnecessarily redundant to the point of being the weak link…the “field repair” should be the factory configuration. Seems a little unnecessary reinventing of the wheel going on here. The worst part though? I’ll buy them again! Lol

Must be a bad batch of leather or something, I’ve put a ton of miles on my TX4’s with no issues

I had the same issue.  Guess I should call La Sportiva.

Laces suck, in general , a la sportiva ongoing issue. Even the buckles on their ski boots suck.

Yes i have 2 holes that look similar to the pics in this thread. Definitely a recurring issue with tx4s