I had no idea what I wanted when I was buying my first rock shoes. Well, I guess, the price was the biggest factor. I ended up choosing between 5.10 Spire and La Sportiva Mythos. Put Spire on one foot, Mythos on the other and went to the climbing wall. My first impression was that the Mythos were much more comfortable, but once I tried to smear on the wall, Spires won fair and square. Sportiva tended to slip a lot, while Spires stood like glued to the surface. Later I noticed people wearing Mythos slipped where I could smear without effort.
Although some people say that rubber on the modern shoes doesn't matter, I clearly felt the difference between Sportiva's Vibram and stickier C5 Stealth by FiveTen.
When I came home, I noticed that all seams on my Spires are smeared with glue. Did not look pretty at all. However, may be because its maker did not spare glue, they still, after more than a year of use have all their seams intact.
Rubber started to flake off on the toes of my left shoe after about 14 months of use (~2 times a week in a climbing gym and a few times outdoors). One thing that I noticed is that the edges of their soles are slightly rounded, which makes edging quite difficult. Although I don't regret buying Spires as my first shoes, I will choose something with equal smearing, but better edging for my second pair, like FiveTen Anasazi Velcro.
Also, I bought them half of my street shoe size, but they stretched a lot. Now I feel some airpockets in them here and there. It doesn't make their performance worse, but some people may not like it.
Every year, the Five Ten Spire is the best-selling rock shoe in the U.S.Its the perfect all-around climbing shoe, engineered for the climber seeking u...More at CampSaver.com
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