Gear Review: La Sportiva Stickit Kids' Climbing Shoes

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So, your kids want to rock climb. You are going to need some things. One of the things that can make the difference between a kid who wants to keep climbing and a kid who decides its not for them are climbing shoes. Can you find shoes that find that balance between performance and comfort whether top roping or multi-pitch climbing? Whether sport climbing, trad climbing, or alpine climbing? The La Sportiva Stickits are what my family have turned to as we’ve tried to strike that balance.

I’ve been on climbs, scrambles, and hikes with the wrong footwear and they have been miserable. I’ve had a surprise technical climb in the alpine, when we got off route and came to a cliff that was harder moves than the boots I had on would make comfortable. I’ve been on scrambles on shoes with the wrong rubber and each step felt like I might peel off. I’ve been on a hikes with shoes that were too stiff and technical, and my arches were killing me.

The downsides of having the wrong footwear can vary from uncomfortable to down-right dangerous. Regardless, it can play games with your mind, at the very least. I’ve turned back on technical scrambles for not being able to “trust” my feet.

For kids that are getting up on technical rock, finding the sweet spot between comfort and performance is an interesting needle to thread. On the one hand, our kids loved getting technical shoes because their hikers were - quite simply - limiting their ability to get up things. Just having a mildly pointed toe made a huge difference in the size of holds they could use. And, of course, the sticky rubber is a big deal for generating friction on the many many slab routes we find in the granite of middle Colorado. But on the other hand, no kid is really ready to feel the constraint and toe pressure that a performance shoe will impart. Kids aren’t necessarily going to keep swapping out their shoes to get back into their sneakers every time they come off the wall. They are going to take longer on routes than most adults, too - even when they are climbing well simply because their size means they make more moves.

So, the trick is finding a shoe that can perform enough and be comfortable enough.

I think the “enough” becomes defined by where your child is at in her or his climbing. At the beginning of one’s climbing, I think comfort is slightly more important than performance. In the video, I talk about how having a supremely enjoyable experience is paramount. If your kids keep having fun, they are going to want to keep coming back. The more they come back the better they will get. If you can get a lot of volume of climbing in, early, that will pay huge dividends in both their future performance (if that’s what they want) and your family dynamics. You aren’t going to get a lot of volume in if your kids feet are hurting all day.

Once your kids feel like they are being held back by their shoes, then they are ready to move into something more performant. Once it’s their choice, rather than their default, they are much more likely to put up with the management they will need to do (like swapping out shoes when they are off the wall) when they have the technical machines on their feet that will help them to get the extra grade or so.

So, for me, the sequencing matters: start with a bias towards comfort, and then let my kids tell me when they want the stiffer, performing shoes.

The La Sportiva Stickits are not the best performing shoe, but they do provide great comfort and enough performance to make a difference. We experienced exactly that. We tell the kids that stiffer shoes with better performance are out there, but we also tell them about the downsides. That way, they can tell us when they are ready.

Empowerment is a great thing in most circumstances… and particularly when you are a parent.