Oh one more thing I tried out the montrail CTC at REI put it threw a battery of tests and it didn't pass muster. The heel slipped on me which is weird cause the Montrail integrafit last is famed for a good heel fit, but the real caper was that they simple would not stick to metal surfaces, their supposed to have sticky rubber sole but were barely more sticky then other montrail on most surfaces and much much less so on metal.

I also tried on the Rajas, the run extremely narrow and I couldn't even fit my foot into a 13, the sole also looked to agressive. I think the exum ridge is teh shoe you want to get from La sportiva. If you like the montrail feel I think the hardrock is probably the best for what we do.

Wow had to go to page 2 to dredge this back up, didn't even know we had a page 2.

I destroyed my La Sportiva Exum Ridges not too long ago, offical durability: 2 months Keep in mind though that I wore these shoes everyday and I am extremely hard on shoes. With that said I think these are my favorite shoes I've ever worn. Best grip I have tested since they use a form of climbing rubber with a flattish sole. Too aggressive of a tread is not good for grip, especially wet. The only problem with that is that is right where all the wear went. I wore holes directly through the front portion of the shoes to my toes, then the toes themselves started to unravel... I'm currently looking into the warranty on them to see if I can get another pair, but man I wish REI carried them.
Only downfalls with them is that they have a plastic midsole which is bad for railings, cushioning is low and the grip wears fast (for me at least). Still my favorite shoe though, can't beat that grip...

I'll be testing REI's return policy tomorrow when I return these Salomons XA Comp 2's, I'm sorry but I do not like them at all. The tread looks interesting and good but it is absolute shite when wet. The rubber is just not the right kind for the stuff I do, I couldn't even get over the 11' wall with these. tread just seems to hold water and slip. They probably work well for actual trailrunning, but for me I need to feel confident in the rain. If I wore these at Freeway last Sunday....I would have died. Plus they don't really fit my arches and my heel keeps wanting to slip out no matter how tight they are. I don't have the patience to break these in and wear down the grip to something suitable. I ran a quick test against my old merrel slams and exum ridges and they both easily won in grip...by a lot.

I tried on the innov8 terrocs, man those things transfer feeling well, would be fun for precisions, but again I don't think they have the grip I need or I may injure my foot through them.

So I'll be heading back and checking out some Montrails that looked like they had nice rubber, whatever La Sportiva shoes they do have, and a couple different Merrels.

Montrail Vitesse II
http://www.rei.com/online/store/Product ... view=large

Oh oh, and I got flirted into buying some super socks with amazing sweat whisking technolodgy! Personally I think 10 dollars is too much for a single pair of socks... but actually I kinda like them so far, and they are guaranteed for like two years or something ...

Yeah to bad, about the salomons. The fit my feet perfect, when I wore them I felt like the grip was less then perfect but looking back I thought it might be more my technique that was imperfect never tried them in the wet, saw allot of people recomending them and figured the would be worth looking into, they should take them back no prob. I have had no problems with the inov8's in the wet.

I tried out three of the montrail shoes, the Masai does not stick at all in the wet no traction, the CTC doesn't stick to metal, the hardrock seemed pretty good but didn't excite me and the tread was to agressive. Didn't try the vitesse.

I didn't realize that adidas and Solomon are the same company, and now they have just purchased Reebok!
Regarding Reebok, the adidas-Solomon CEO said they plan to "keep the brands separate and restore the U.S. line to its former stature as an innovative performance shoe."
Anyway, there's your news tidbit for the day.

anyone tried any Vasque shoes? Their dang website doesn't show the soles.

I see a talk about Nike or Adidas.

I sell shoes at Nordstrom and these are the 2 types of shoes that we never recommend to customers. Asics, Brooks and Saucony is where it's at.

When it comes to the grip on the sole that's needed for PK, I don't know much.

the Green superfeet have much more support and shock absorbtion.

I thought the blues were for shoes w/o removable insoles, so that's why they're thinner becuase they just stack on top of your existing footbed ... whereas the greens are thicker because you remove the OEM insole first.
So if you put a green in a shoe w/o a removable insole it might not fit so well.

But it would definitely be well-cushioned, so I guess in the end I'm agreeing with you.

so I get Popular science and they had some badass shoes in it. one where there was jell under the heel and.. its not what you are thinking, its totally diffrent. does an6yone else get the mag and knows the website for them? they are hella good for falling.

This thread rocks so hardcore. So I'm lookin at the Salomen Dreamers. Know where I can find em in the Seattle area?

I don't think you will be able too, you can order them of zappos or backcountry.com. I wouldn't recomend them however the fit is not snug enough and the ride to clunky. Check out some asics, or la sportiva for now. As you get more comfortable and confident in your technique and the strenght of your feet you might want to look into inov-8. Inov is coming out with two new sticky rubber sole models in march. That I think could be incredible parkour shoes based on the performance of my terrocs and the features shown. No way to be sure untill some one actually tests them.

Here the are.

The F-lite 250
http://www.inov-8.com/Product.html#250

And roc-lite 285
http://www.inov-8.com/Product.html#285

Something I haven't noticed much discussion of (unless I was too lazy and just missed it..) is resoling... Great support/cushion and great rubber don't always come together...

So Stealth Rubber http://www.stealthrubber.com/ (the guys who make the kick arse rubber for the 5.10 shoes) sells their rubber for resoling... I've done a little prodding around but have yet to put it to fruition yet, but I'm thinking a good pair of running shoes with a resoled bottom of Stealth's rubber would make a great setup. (with rubber over the toe section for those crazy cats)

I know davepagecobbler.com (Seattle) supposedly offers resoling solutions by them. No details yet though.

I'm also keeping an eye out for any other rubber sheets I can get ahold of for resoling. Texture? Nothing a waffle iron can't fix. If anyone has any ideas or leads, let me know.

hiro, that's a really cool idea!
It'd be cool to come up with an economical hybrid that was better than something off the shelf ... like take a $40 pair of shoes from Big 5 + re-soling in Stealth + a good insole ... so it'd still be $90 or whatever like the top shoes are, but be tailor made to perfection!

Oh gods, these feel really nice. Oh gods so nice. Nike Air Pegasus. Now lets just see how they handle. I got em for $50, nice and cheap. Well, for a pair of decent shoes. What I love is that my dad has always been obsessive about having good comfortable shoes for his family so has no problem buying me another pair. Score. I'll post my review as the information comes!

I went shopping at REI yesterday for various things and I ended up walking out with a pair of Merrell Chamelon II Stretches. I just checked this thread over again and I noticed Corndogg mentioned them in passing, only insomuch as he found some other shoes that did something better than the Merrells, but of all the shoes they had in at the time, they had the least aggresive track pattern, the densest track pattern and felt pretty comfortable (and I have to admit, I've gotten used to the bungie laces XD). I haven't had a chance to really try them out for PK yet, hopefully I'll get a chance to do that in Oly this weekend.

On a side note, a friend of mine told me she recently bought running shoes here, http://www.seattlerunningcompany.com/

Apparently they record you running for a few minutes to get an idea of your stride and stepping to help you pick a show that's right for you. Anyone else ever gone here? I think next time I'm in Seattle I'll try to at least check it out.