Video Gear Review: La Sportiva Katana Lace Climbing Shoes

The Katana Lace climbing shoe from La Sportiva is built for precision footwork and tiny holds. This is an aggressive shoe for aggressive climbing. Tony from Next Adventure wears this shoe for single pitch sport climbing and offers this solid gear review. - Hi, I'm Tony with Next Adventure and this is the La Sportiva Katana Lace Climbing Shoe. This is the shoe that I personally wear most of the time when I'm climbing. I do a lot of single pitch sport climbing and I’ve found that this is a good aggressive shoe for that. For those steeper routes and even dead vertical, it works really well. The Katana Lace has a good amount of downturn so it’s fairly aggressive. It really lets you pull into some holds on the steeper routes, but It's also nice and stiff so it edges well. La Sportiva incorporated their P3 technology which ensures that the shoe will not flatten out over the life of its use. I even have a pair of these that I recently had re-soled. I've worn them for about 2 years and they still perform super well. For the sizing on these, usually, you will want to downsize on a little bit. I personally wear a size 11 in street shoes and I went to a size 9 in these. They fit pretty tight at first, but they do stretch out around the tight spots, so they end up being pretty comfortable. You end up with some room for your toe knuckles to come up and nuzzle in there, hang out, and relax. They have the XSedge Vibram sole which uses a stiff rubber. They're good for edging and toeing into tight holds but they aren't going to perform as well on slabs. For anything from dead vertical to really overhung, they are going to work exceptionally well. The lacing allows you to get a custom fit on your foot. You can make them a little wider at the bottom if you need it for your forefoot. I'm Tony, this is the Katana Lace climbing shoe from La Sportiva. An aggressive shoe for a slightly more advanced climber. Maybe not your first climbing shoe, this is built for someone doing steeper routes who need more performance out of their shoes. You can find it in the store at Next Adventure or online at www.nextadventure.net