For this week’s review, since Ascend in Style was created to cater to the women in the outdoor space, I thought it would be great for you to read a review interview of one of the badass ladies in the outdoors about her favorite climbing shoe, the Scarpa Drago. No shoe fits every foot the same. My favorite shoe might be someone’s nightmare. Someone else’s favorite shoe probably wouldn’t stay on my foot if my life depended on it (if you read my review on the Butora Acros or the La Sportiva Finale, you will know of my tiny heel problem). We are all Cinderella on a quest to find the shoe that fits, so why hear about why some of these women love the shoe they do? Who knows! They might have had the same problems finding the right fit as you did!
Today we will be reviewing the favorite shoes of a badass chica we dubbed Bruce.
Coming in at a high price point of $200 a pair, Bruce claims her favorite shoes are the Scarpa Dragos.
Before we hear about her shoe pick, let me tell you a little bit about Bruce. She is a force of nature in a tiny package. Coming in at just 5 foot 1, not only is she a beast on boulders and sport climbing, but she is a killer snowboarder, a shark on the water, hence… Bruce! If you know, you know… And not to mention an all-around awesome human.
She was kind enough to let me pick her brain on her favorite climbing shoes over beer and mochi donuts!
Bruce started climbing about 4 years ago. She was looking for something new, it was winter and she was too much of a baby to be surfing anymore. Her boyfriend loves climbing; it was something that he did after work every day so he mentioned “why don’t you get some shoes, I’ll put you on a guest pass and you could try it out.” So, she did and she instantly fell in love.
What does she look for in a climbing shoe?
- Soft Rubber because she feels like the ability to feel every chip hold and everything on the wall is the most important. She feels like she boulder better when she has a soft shoe
What kind of climbing does she gravitate towards?
- Bouldering
What kind of foot shape does she have?
- A wide foot, like a duck foot, she says. Her toes don’t even touch each other
What are some difficulties she’s had on her journey to finding her favorite shoe?
- The fit of the heel, similar to yours truly. She has a wide foot with a pretty narrow heel. It’s hard to find anything that fits a foot like that, she mentioned. She also has a really high arch so… a pretty high arch with a low volume foot. Anyone else have this issue?
So what makes the Scarpa Drago her favorite climbing shoe?
- Even though they are more of a concerted and narrow shoe, it still fits her foot like a sock. It suctions in the arch. It’s a pretty aggressive shoe, but it fits perfectly to her arch and the heel is narrow enough. Especially now that they have come out with the Scarpa Drago LV, it’s a game-changer for her
How does the shoe fit her foot?
- Tight on the pinky toes. A little uncomfortable on the pinky toes because of how wide her foot is, but other than that, like a glove… or a sock, I guess, because it’s a foot…
How does the shoe function on:
- Edges
- Beautifully! She can feel everything in those shoes and feels very foot confident when wearing them
- Smearing
- Average. She doesn’t believe they are particularly good at smearing. She feels like the soft rubber doesn’t fare better or worse when smearing and doesn’t notice a difference
- Pockets
- She doesn’t notice a difference in pockets either compared to other aggressive shoes
- Heel Hooking
- Great! She says they’re as good as some other shoes like the La Sportiva because the heels are more robust, but because the heel fits so much better on her foot, it functions better. There isn’t necessarily a great amount of rubber on the shoes, but finding the perfect fit can be a game-changer
Thoughts on the rubber
- LOVE! Although, because it is so soft, it definitely wears out a lot faster. When she wears them in a gym, she goes through a pair in about 4 months because of how rough the walls are. She tends to drag her toes a lot, especially when rope climbing, and that will just tear it up the rubber. Can anyone relate? Outdoors, they last about 8 months for her
Things that could be improved upon
- Considering the shape of her foot, she found the amount of material that is on the top of the shoe to be excessive which they fixed with the Scarpa Dragos LVs. She used to have to tighten the velcro past the runway and the strap would be almost touching the bottom of the shoe. Now with the Scarpa Drago LVs, there’s so much less material on the top, so there is no excess fabric bunching on the top anymore, and the velcro fits the way that it was crafted to. According to Bruce, for someone with a wide foot, the Dragos LVs are a bit on the narrow side, but not enough that it would stop her from buying them
Is there anything she doesn’t like about the shoe?
- She was not a fan of the volume issue, but Scarpa fixed that. The single velcro is nice, but I’ve realized after wearing them outside a lot, with the amount of dirt and grime, that single velcro gets very dirty very fast, and now the velcro doesn’t stick as well, which doesn’t think is their fault at all, it is just the nature of velcro
Pros:
- Perfectly aggressive
- Fits like a sock
- Great for toe hooking because of all the rubber on top of the toe box
Cons:
- Amount of material at the top (which Scarpa fixed with the Dragos LVs)
- Dirty velcro
- Price point $200, expensive for how soft they are. Ideally not a gym shoe
Bottom line
- This is her favorite shoe in the world. As with every shoe, it’s what fits your foot best. With the high arch and the narrow heel, the Scarpa Drago fits very well. You will be able to feel every single little thing, and the confidence it provides is worth it the chunk of change
Purchase the Scarpa Drago Here
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