Noodles:
So my Guides died, it took a while… but not as long as I’d expected them to last. Mind you I did kick the hell out of them; what killed them was some river mud that never washed out, not matter what I did they always left my socks a funny color... so in the end they were binned.
In desperate need of another pair of shoes I grabbed a different pair of shoes, this time the Chases
Here’s what the Five Ten site says :
The word Parkour means ”The Path, or the Way Through” Freerunning and Parkour place very high demands on footwear. Whether it be running off the walls and doing back flips, landing a precision gap jump, or balancing a rail far above the ground, the new Five Ten prepare for take-off. The multi-talented Chase combines the spring and support demanded by free runners with a classic street-smart upper. The Chase is the shoe of choice for Parkour and Freerunning experts.
The shoes as usual are kicking 5.10’s rubber, this time Mystique rather than C4, so there’s a change, but what you have to remember these shoes aren’t made to hike to the cliff in they’re made to run up walls. Mystique is a brutally tough rubber designed to be lighter weight with twice the endurance of previous rubbers. Exotic ingredients get off-the-chart marks on the PICO abrasion resistance test.
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| 5.10 Chases |
What does all this mean? It means they grip and they last a long time. The problem I had with the Guides is that I just walked through the heels of them in a pretty short period of time, on a wet surface (like a Metro platform) they slipped and slid like I was wearing a pair of ice skates; the net result was the shoes are great for getting to the crag, great for a little bouldering session but in town they kind of lacked the grip I was expecting. Yeah yeah we know the Guides are a tool for a specific job, but I buy shoes and I wear them pretty well every day, if they can do everything that I ask of them then I’m happy, if they don’t then well I look for another option.
Ah options, the Chases... or another pair of Guides. I went for the Chases and here’s where a love story begins:
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| 5.10 Chases |
Weekend One:
We were playing in the forest cutting down some trees, chain saws blazing the shoes were great as we hiked to where we were cutting down stuff.
On the way back as we passed the wood back over a river (the bridge has long since fallen down so you have to stand on some slippery old wood to pass stuff over), my foot slipped and my new shoes got soaked. “Hell I think, as one foot is wet I might as well walk back down the river to get home”, so I did. In go the feet and a scrambling hike later (to the shoulders in water in some places) I emerge back at the cabin, soaked. I took the shoes off, put them on a nice warm picnic bench and in the morning I had a nice dry pair of shoes (Nope, I didn’t even stuff them with news paper) What’s more the shoes didn’t even look like they’d been in a river. So far so good!
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| 5.10 Chases |
Paintball, normally the nemesis of most shoes. I should have worn boots but I didn’t. It rained all day. End result, my feet did get a little wet (remember these aren’t really for the forest) and the shoes had more mud on / in them than you’d really want on a pair of kicks. So I hosed them down and began to wonder if the dreaded “muddy sock syndrome” would return. Nope, so far these shoes are kicking the Guides ass, and if you’re honest they look better when you’re just kicking about as well!
Weekend Six:
I’ve been wearing these shoes day in day out for well six weeks. Time for a smell test
They still smell new, something is not right here. Just for reference the only shoes I don’t wear socks in are climbing shoes.
Mr 5.10 has made a shoe that actually breathes pretty well... we’re in the middle of Summer here.
Weekend Seven:
I’m setting at the local wall and being a genius I forget my climbing shoes but remember the holds that we’re testing. Thankfully we’re setting on the boulder wall so it shouldn’t be too bad. After a 6hr session in these shoes, fore running and hiking up and down ladders my feet are feeling a little tired but nothing too bad... oh I also managed to flash a V4 in them.
Yup you heard right, these shoes ACTUALLY CLIMB PRETTY DAMN WELL... more testing is in order
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| 5.10 Chases |
Weekend Eight / Nine and Ten:
Climbing indoors and out, I decide that all of my warm ups should be done in these shoes and some bouldering up to V4. Now these shoes don’t edge as well as the Guides but they do a pretty good job, and when you look at the profile or the toe box
Insert images here
You’ll see that if you get anywhere near to a crack you’ve got an advantage with the Chases, they give you more toe control so where the Guides fall down these actually do as good of, if not a better job. The only problem with the Chases as I’ve found is that they’re not as stiff as the Guides, for some people this is a good thing, for others it’s not so good; it really comes down to personal preference and the way you actually climb
Currently:
We’re at about four months in, yes I said we as the Chases have become pretty well my shoe of choice. It’s raining outside and I decided to do a little test today. I call it the slide test. With the Guides on a wet day on a Metro platform I could run and slide because the sole looks like this:
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| 5.10 Guide Sole |
Compared to this:
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| 5.10 Chase Sole |
So I splashed through a few puddles and wandered to the metro, took a nice long run up and went for a slide. Ooops did I say slide, I meant sudden stop. The Chases grip like no other shoe on the planet, they are pretty damn ridiculous.
So it seems to be all good right? Well that’s not so, I do have a couple of minor (and they are so minor it’s not even funny) problems with the shoes....
- These shoes will mark the floor, the Guides would as well but you’d have to really try to get the C4 to leave a black line... the Chases will leave a nice black line if you drag your foot.
- The upper isn’t going to last as long as the Guides, but so far there are only a couple of minor scuffs whereas the Guides would actually just shrug off the abuse
- If you want something slightly more waterproof then these aren’t really it. They will keep your feet dry, but as they breathe really well it’s a matter of time before your feet will get wet.
That’s it! If you want something that in my mind is probably the best semi approach / go to the bar / I forgot my climbing shoes shoes then I’d say go but some Chases!
If you don’t believe me here’s the state of these shoes today at around four months and I’ve worn these shoes EVERYDAY for that period of time....
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| 5.10 Chases Sept 2011 |
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| 5.10 Chases Sept 2011 |
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| 5.10 Chases Sept 2011 |
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| 5.10 Chases Sept 2011 |
Things to note: I haven’t done the laces up on these shoes ever, I just knotted the end of the laces and just slip them on. They’re that comfortable and fit my feet that well. There is some wear on the outside edges of the heels, that’s because of the way I walk.... with my Guides the tread had actually worn down to the base within a month. These shoes have been in mud / rivers / had paint balls hit them / drinks dropped on them / food dropped on them and have survived bird poop
You can find the Chases here:
http://fiveten.com/products/
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