When to resole your climbing shoes

Climbing shoes wear out, but they rarely wear out all at once. The upper, the closure and the fit can stay perfectly good long after the rubber on the toe has thinned to nothing. Resoling replaces that worn rubber and gives a well-fitting pair a second or third life, often for a fraction of the cost of buying new. The skill is knowing when to send them off, because catch it at the right moment and you keep the shoe you love going for years.

How to tell the rubber is going

Wear concentrates at the toe, since that is where you stand on most footholds. Keep an eye on a few telltale signs:

• Thinning at the toe. The sole rubber gets visibly thinner, often developing a smooth, shiny patch where the texture has gone.
• The rand showing through. The rand is the thin rubber band that wraps around the toe and side of the shoe. When the sole wears down to it, you will see a colour change or a different texture, sometimes a faint line appearing.
• A hole forming. If you can see the fabric or your sock through the toe, you have left it too long.
• Loss of grip. Smooth, glassy rubber simply does not stick the way fresh rubber does, and you will notice your feet skating off holds they used to hold.

The single most important thing is to resole before the rand wears through. The rand is structural, and once you put a hole in it the repair becomes far more involved and expensive, if it can be saved at all. As soon as the sole rubber is getting thin over the toe, that is the moment to act, not after.

Why resoling beats buying new

A good pair of climbing shoes is broken in to your foot. The fit has settled, the stretch has happened, and they feel like an extension of you. Throwing that away because the rubber wore out is a waste of money and a waste of a shoe that fits.

Resoling keeps that dialled fit while restoring the grip. A cobbler who specialises in climbing shoes grinds off the old sole and bonds on fresh rubber, and you can often choose the rubber type and thickness to suit how you climb: stickier and softer for sensitivity, firmer for edging. It typically costs a good deal less than a new pair, and it is the more sustainable choice too, keeping shoes out of landfill.

A few practical habits

Rotate between two pairs if you climb a lot, so neither wears out as fast and you always have a backup while one is away being resoled. Brush dirt off your soles before climbing, since grit between rubber and rock grinds the sole down quicker. And do not walk around outside in your climbing shoes, because pavement and grit chew through rubber far faster than rock ever does.

Keep a rough note of when you bought or last resoled each pair. It is easy to lose track, and knowing roughly how many sessions a sole lasts you means you can send shoes off in good time rather than discovering a hole mid-trip. Catch the wear early and a single pair can serve you for years.