Friday, September 25, 2009

5.10 Team Shoe

I wanted to throw my opinions of these shoes out into the world since there are a lot of questions surrounding them at the moment and not a ton of answers. So here it goes.

First Impressions:

Fit - Out of the box I was very impressed with their fit. They sucked up nicely under my arch and the heel cup fit better than either the dragons or the Jet 7's. It still has that nice narrow profile to the heel but seems a bit more sculpted than before. The toe box fit, dare I say it, almost perfectly! No real dead spots and a nice close fit everywhere. I was very impressed and they were maybe the best fitting shoe I've tried on, out of the box. The only real tough spot was my left pinky toe which was a bit snug. Not bad, but noticable.

The one thing that people need to realize with fit is that this is a SLIPPER. They are a bit tough to get on at first, just like the old V10's were. Once you get them on though, they fit fantastic. Well, at least they fit me fantastic.

Of note is that these fit almost identical in length to both my Dragons and Jets. Not in my perception but in actual measured length of the outsole. Just an FYI.

Build - When I showed them to Katie the first thing she said was "They look like they're......well built. What gives?". They look just a touch more polished and well put together than what I've seen in the past from Five Ten. The toe rubber is glued down nice and clean and the velcro strap is sewn down tight so that it won't rotate. Thank you, Five ten. I was really hoping for that.

The only thing I seem to dislike about the shoe is that they went to the pull tabs on the Jets instead of their traditional Anasazi/Dragon pull tab. It's a bit thin and I'm curious how it's going to hold up.

Overall though, the build is much much nicer than any other Five Ten I've owned. At least my pair is!

Second Impressions:

Fit - I've climbed in them for about 2-3 weeks now and the fit has only improved. My heel is still locked in and the toe box has stretched maybe a 1/4 size and is just about perfect now. I have gotten a couple of small blisters on my middle toe of each foot. First my left and now my right, but it's nothing major and is going away already.

They're pretty much broken in and are one of the best fitting shoes I've ever had. Fantastic.

Build - They're holding up fine so far. The one interesting thing is that you can see the midsole and where it ends. Seeing it made me want to rip apart a shoe. I will do that soon.

Performance - Close to perfect. I'm really impressed with how these climb. They're a nice mix of sensitive and stiff and seemingly do pretty much everything well. The toe rubber works very well, and is a welcome change from the slab of rubber that was tossed onto the second edition of the V10's. Heel hooks feel fairly secure so far and the velcro on the top is a nice addition. On top of that the velcro actually stays in place!

One thing I want to mention is the rubber/midsole combo. It seems that they've hit a nice little sweet spot with their new bottom package. 3.5 mm Mystique along with a fairly thin midsole seems to give a lot of sensitivity while still being able to hold its own on more vertical terrain. It's a really nice combo and, in my eyes, is a better package than what's currently on the Dragon and Jet 7's. It'd also be interesting to have this shoe without the midsole, but that's just my own weird idea.

All told, I'm a huge fan of these things so far. As everyone knows I'm a bit too much of a shoe whore for my own good and I'm incredibly impressed by how much I like them. They took a near perfect shoe with the original V10 and improved every single downside of that shoe. They added velcro and a really nice toe cap along with fixing the heel and adding more rubber to that as well.

I was definitely underwhelmed when the Jet's came out as the V10's replacement. They just didn't seem worthy of taking over where the V10 left off. The Team Shoe seems to have finally picked up where its predecessor left off.

I'm curious what I'm going to think as I use the shoes more but I'm very happy so far.

Sizing info:
Street shoe - 8.5-9

Team Shoe - 8
Dragon - 8
Jet 7 - 7
Project - 6.5
Anasazi Velcro - 8

Testarossa - 37.5
Solution - 37.5

Booster - 38

I think that my perfect bouldering/spurt climbing quiver is going to end up being the Projects, Team Shoes and either Dragons or Testarossas. Just a nice mix of three very different shoes and styles.

15 comments:

  1. My left little toe has had a hard time as well. My hypothesis was that it has something to do with how your shoes go on depending on where your dominant hand is pulling on pull tabs. Pulling on the right shoe is more of a straight on sort of effort. Pulling on the left shoe your right finger goes in a pull tab in the inside of the shoe which cocks your foot a bit toward the left in the shoe. Am I crazy?

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  2. Hmm. Interesting theory! I've never thought of it that way but you might actually be right. It's funny because my left shoe is always chalky from having to straighten it out after I put it on. I wonder if you're right...

    And yes, you so crazy!!

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  3. if this is the case, you can sometimes manhandle the shoe once it is on your foot by squeezing the toe box and wiggling it. i do this with all of my shoes and my feet seem to settle in right where they are supposed to be rather than where the initial pull-on forced them to be.

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  4. Yeah, after more thought, I think that my left pinkie toe is a little bit more robust than my right. In fact, thinking about it, my right pinky toe is actually a bit of a webbed concoction. Kind of a "Toe.5" deal. Creepy, I know.

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  5. Hey Steve have you ever given Evolve a try. I've been wearing the Pretators for like 4 years now and love them. Seems like we have the same size steet shoe so you'd probably be an 8.5 in those and then I just recieved the 'Optimus Prime' yesterday and tried them out last night and first impressions were good. are you coming this weekend? if so you can try them if you want... and then ill try yours :-)
    sweaty

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  6. I've never tried Evolve but people seem to like them. Sadly, I don't think we're gonna be able to come down this weekend. We've got a couple things going on and I don't think Katie could get off of work. We are planning on getting down there sometime this fall though and I'll let you know when!

    You do need to get back up here though. It's just getting good and we need to exchange shoe beta! I love shoes...

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  7. haha word. bummer on this weekend! weather looks good too.
    sweaty

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  8. hi steve, is ur listed street shoe size in US mens or UK? thanks mate

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  9. Hey Robert, my listed street shoe is in US. I'm in between an 8.5 and an 8. Note that I wear my shoes very tight compared to many people and I've heard lots of stories of people upsizing from their street shoe. I personally can't imagine doing that with this shoe but that's just me.

    Hope it helps!!!

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  10. as a disclaimer!!!! Steve has rubber feet, literally! Do not size your shoes off of what he sizes his. It's retarded the shoes he squeezes into. Retarded.
    sweaty

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  11. Thanks for the feedback steve, muchly appreciated

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  12. Just found your review which was definitely interesting read as the Team5.10 is one of the candidates I'm looking at for the moment for my next pair. Just a clarification needed; in the above comment you say you're between an 8 and an 8.5 in street-shoe, but then in the article you're saying 8.5 and 9. Which one is it?

    Also you mentioned that they stretch a little... How's that now?. and you say you got them really tight? Do you have any additional info after about half a year more use since you wrote the text?

    thanks

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  13. Hey Andreas. I'm sorry. I meant to say I'm between an 8.5 and a 9 in street shoes. 8.5 in Basics and 9 in Freerunners to give you a better idea. The teams in a size 8 fit perfect after they break in. I'll warn you that they're VERY tight when I get them at first. Most people have said they would go with an 8.5 in my situation. The 8.5's have too much dead space for my liking though.

    Right now I'm on my second pair and I still think they're the best shoe I've ever had. The break in period can be kinda rough but eventually they get better! I'd say they stretch maybe a quarter size in all. More of a break in and softening than anything else.

    The performance of the shoe is top notch and they're truly a phenomenal shoe. The only downside to the shoe is the pull tabs. Everything else on them is absolutely perfect. Highly recommended. Let me know if you have any other questions!

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  14. Thanks! I just want to ask you one more thing... How do they edge? or rather how to they do on vertical terrain? I know they're far from the stiffest in world, but you say they hold their own? care to elaborate a little more...

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  15. Your review is right on. And the pull tabs are horrible... during break in they actually pulled skin off the sides of my fingers.

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