Buying your own Gear: Shoes for beginners.
The equipment that you needed to start climbing depends on the type of climbing you are doing, but for all types you will definitely want climbing shoes.
While for the first couple of sessions you should be fine in trainers, you will probably find climbing is pretty difficult in them, they just aren’t designed to let you stand on the small holds that you need to. Climbing shoes have hard rubber soles which allow you to stand on the very edges of your feet and will make a big difference. So once you know you enjoy climbing you should invest in some although they aren’t too cheap.
I’ll let you in on a secret climbing shoes are defiantly not the most comfortable shoes you will ever buy and you will probably be told by the sales person to go for a tight fit. Some may even suggest that you go one or more sizes smaller than your normal shoe size; and while too much wiggle room is not a good thing, if the’re so tight that you can hardly stand to keep your feet in them your enthusiasm for climbing is going to drop off pretty fast. While you will be starting out at the brunel wall, by the end of the year we shall be taking you out to the crag for several hours climbing, so make sure that you buy shoes that you can bear to wear. As a side note suede shoes will stretch a little, synthetic shoes are unlikely to.
Climbing shoes absolutely must be bought from a shop and NEVER over the internet as each pair is handmade and sizes can vary drastically between manufactures and even different models.
The easiest way of telling how whether a climbing shoe is for an advanced climber or a beginner is to look at the shape of the shoe; the shoes tend to get less and less foot shaped as they get more advanced, as they put pressure on certain parts of the foot to improve performance. For a beginner you want a symmetrical looking shoe that doesn’t try and to distort you foot into new and interesting shapes.
Shoes I would recommend for starting out are the Scarpa force( which were my first shoe) or Vantage, or the Red Chili Spirit VCR or Sausalito all of which are about £60-70.