On Friday I eagerly returned home from work to find my new pair
of Evolv Luchador’s had arrived in the post. In anticipation of testing them
out I checked the weather forecast for the weekend (it was raining of course),
but not to fear I headed to the wall on Sunday to see how they would perform.
The Luchador is Evolv’s latest shoe in the Chris Sharma series
(which has produced some outstanding shoes already including the Nexxo and
Shaman), available in both a lace up and in a Velcro. It is basically designed
as a technical all-around shoe, comparable to the Pontas lace-up that I was
very partial too a few years ago, or La Sportiva’s Miura or 5-10’s pink Anasazi
lace-up. The Luchador is designed as what I would describe as a 90% shoe, in
that it is what I would want to wear on the majority of my climbing, with
perhaps a change to a more aggressive model such as the Nexxo if I was climbing
a project on a hugely overhanging wall that required an aggressive downturn.
On Sunday I climbed in them for a few hours as I went about my
normal training and while it is difficult to evaluate a shoe’s performance
after one session I was pleasantly surprised with how good they felt straight
out the box. The rand (the profile of the shoe) is slightly downturned, meaning
that the Luchador has a compromise between a flat rand and more aggressive
models. As I have mentioned this means that on steep walls (35 degrees and
steeper) a shoe with more of a downturn would perhaps be more suitable if it
was a problem that was near my maximum grade. However, most climbing
(especially outside) is on more vertical or slightly overhanging faces, and the
Luchador excels on walls like this. The edging (both inside and out) of this
shoe is quite simply ridiculously good! By only having a slight downturn with
quite a stiff sole I felt like I was cheating as I stood on minuscule edges at
the wall. On limestone and slate where edging is so crucial on small positive
footholds this would certainly be my shoe of choice. I videoed a few climbs at
the wall to show the versatility of the Luchador.
My main worry about the Luchador was whether I would be able to
smear effectively in it, as while a slight downturn and stiff sole are good for
edging, they often detract from the flexibility in climbing shoes that is
needed to smear. However, even in session one I felt confident smearing - as
the middle climb in the video shows on a classic Craggy Island horror show. I
was also not sure about the new elastic tongue system – as at first it makes it
more difficult to get the shoe on your foot. But this not only holds the shoe
closer to your foot (creating a more secure fit), but will probably reduce the
amount of sand and grit getting in (always a problem on the Sandstone). The
shoe is also made from a synthetic upper, which should mean that there is very
little stretch – something I always look for in a shoe as there is nothing
worse than your shoes ‘bagging’ after a couple of months of use. The lining is
also surprisingly soft and provides a nice amount of cushion to ensure that the
shoe feels comfortable, but that this is not done at the expense of precision. Finally,
the rubber is the Evolv standard of TRAX – which always does the job for me!
So would I recommend this shoe? Most definitely, in fact I already
have to a friend of mine! I often feel that climbers don’t evaluate what shoe
will be the best for the problem they are trying – relying too much on one
shoes for all styles. I prefer to go to crags and walls with a range of shoes
in order to meet all available challenges (the other shoes that I climb in being
the Evolv Nexxo and Shaman). The Luchador will definitely be coming out when I
head out on the slate, limestone, edging problems and probably for routes in
general as it is so comfortable. When combined with the other shoes in the
Evolv range I can’t really blame anyone else but myself if I can’t get up
something!
