Evolv Bandit Rock Climbing Shoe Review
The Evolv Bandits
Pros
- Comfortable
I sized these straight up to my street shoe. I wear a 9.5 street, and a 9.5 in the Bandits. They fit my wide foot pleasantly which at the time did not seem like a big deal, but later I found out on a 5 pitch route, that it was.
- Lace-up
Everyone has their preferences with lace-ups, velcro, and slippers, but here is my take; lace-up is king. With a lace-up you will get a tighter fit than a velcro can ever give you. Also, it is much easier to have a custom fit for your shoe because you have 9 points of contact on each side instead of 2.
- Edging
This shoe can give anyone the confidence on a slick slab. After using other shoes now, I have come to realize that these have some of the best edging abilities that I have experienced. It is so because the shoe is not aggressive at all with a perfectly flat bottom.
- Most versatile, beginner shoe
When I went climbing, I used these for everything. I never used them for bouldering but when sport climbing, these served my purposes with everything that I took them on. They performed well on slab, overhangs, and cracks. It was not until later that I bought wall specific shoes for routes that I wanted to tackle for better performance. If you want a shoe that can do it all though, I would check these out.
- Good price
You can pay anywhere from $60-150 for rock climbing shoes. I found these on RockCreek.com for $89 while they had a sale. These normally go for $109. $109 may be a bit steep for this shoe, but if you can snag them at $89 like I did, you will not be disappointed.
- Rugged
I am shocked how long these shoes lasted before I blew out a toe even with all of the gym sessions, foot dragging, crack filling, slab slipping, and overall horrible upkeep of them.
- Stickiest rubber in the market
Evolv's eco-rubber is the stickiest in the market. 5ten may have come out with a new rubber recently, but Evolv still is the stickiest when compared to the Stealth and Vibram rubber making those impossible routes a bit easier.
- Toe Rubber
I love that these have that last little bit of rubber over your big toe giving you extra grip when toe hooking.
Cons
- Smell horrible
Everyone now stays away from my shoes after a day of climbing because of these. From the reviews, it seems that it is not just me and may be the shoe. Hard to complain though when they perform as well as they do.
- It's a beginner shoe
This was difficult for me to say, but really, it is a beginner shoe. It has no downward angle or any specific advantages. It is an all-around solid shoe but does not perform perfectly in anything.
- Not an aggressive heel
For someone who rarely heel hooked, this was not an issue. It was not until I started bouldering and getting better at sport that I found the heel to be a bit weak.
Recommendation
It is a great versatile shoe for anyone who is starting out in climbing. It will give you the confidence to tackle any kind of route while keeping you comfortable. If it were a bit more aggressive I might recommend it to other climbers other than beginners or intermediates. As you can see from above, this shoe rocks, it was tough to find something bad to say about these shoes.
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