5.10 > Rock Wrench

Noodles: For a while we've stuck with the same shoes, well I have. I've been bouncing between my Anasazis, from time to time my Projects. So we've been a little lax over here... thankfully I was kicking past a local store and the Rock Wrenches were on sale so I figured what the hell I'll give them a try! Why? It's not before their visual styling, it's because Chris has been rocking about in his 5.10 Prisms and he loved the toe and the way they felt... so without further ado here's the Rock Wrenches:

They're an interesting beast that's for sure, they have a chiseled toe (which we'll talk about more in detail below), they're obviously a lace up... the heel cup is (for once) really well designed and fits really well and then there is a small amount of padding under the heel. They come with a double pull tab so even when they're only half unlaced it's easy to get them on and off.

From the get-go, other than the fact that Chris had raved about the chiseled toe box I "kind of needed a new pair of shoes" as it's comp season. It was probably a brave thing for me to get them two days before the competition.. to not wear them at all and to put them on for the first time in a new gym on brand new holds without trying them on (other than in the store)
I suppose this is a "true test" of a pair of climbing shoes... totally untested and in a medium where you NEED THEM TO PERFORM :)

FIT: I have these shoes at my street size, and they fit quite well with my little toes being a little bit rolled on the outside edges. To be honest this gets a little painful after an hour of climbing or so. I could have sized them up a half size but when I tried these on at a larger size the heel cup didn't fit anywhere near as well as I like. So I'm rolling street size for these guys, putting these shoes on and off is nice and easy
RUBBER: ONYXX, it's pretty high friction but it is a little hard so smearing is something that you have to learn to do in these shoes. Smearing is also something that is a little strange because of the edges on the toe box

The main thing about these shoes is the toe box.. it's something that should be looked at a little more closely:

It's almost completely chiseled, it means that when you climb (if you climb quite toes on, which I kind of do sometimes) that you have almost an unfair advantage over other climbers that don't have that flat edge that makes the smallest edges seem like they're huge... and then look at the front outside edge again it's flat... and it means that you can just lock your foot onto that tiny thing that you'd have trouble standing on and then just laugh at how easy it is. Now edging with these shoes is also helped by the fact that the shoes are pretty stiff! If you compare these shoes to other shoes in the 5.10 range then these are the stiffest shoes that I've tried... the Projects are super soft and the Anasazis are medium hard; these guys feel like you're wearing a pair of beginner shoes when you first put them on.

Once you get these on and you climb in them a little you can get used to the fact that they're slightly stiffer than you're really used to you'll notice that they're slightly down turned which again helps with when you're placing your foot onto holds. Now I like a pair of shoes that you can just slip on and then dump your foot onto anything and not worry about it... these shoes should have a small warning in the box with them and it should read "Hi, these shoes are going to feel really weird to climb in for a little while!" because they do. So weird in fact that look at the two below photos:

At the start of the comp I rocked out with the Wrenches and then later in the comp I went back to my old shoes... mainly for comfort and because I was having trouble adapting my climbing style to them whilst trying to compete. I've worn these shoes a grab number of 5 times... YES 5 TIMES and now I've actually had to put them on the side lines... why?

Ah why!

Because one of the lace loops...

... that are stitched into the underside of the upper has frayed and come completely undone meaning that when I lace the shoes I have a spot that is loose and it feels super strange. I was surprised to have this happen after less than a week, it's something that Chris has talked about with 5.10 he's been saying that 5.10's build quality has gone completely down the toilet. I don't agree with that all of my other shoes have been great, some are still in service after years of abuse, I think that this is just one of those freak things that happens... at least I hope so!

OVERALL: Although I can't use these shoes anymore due to the lace loops being broken I enjoyed climbing in these shoes; it made me climb with a completely different style to what I'm used to and it really takes some getting used to but once you do they perform really really well.
It's a shame that I've pretty well wasted money on them, I can't find the receipt so I can't return them to the store... maybe I'll pick up another pair in the future and I'll come back with more feedback.