Gear Review: La Sportiva Miura VS

La Sportiva Miura VS Gear Review

By Kayla McKinney, featuring photos from Eli Staggs

There is a myriad of styles and techniques in the sport of rock climbing. Everyone has their own style and every route has different features. Different climbing shoes fit better for different styles, distances and formations. It can be difficult to know which shoe will best fit your needs, so reading reviews and testing out products if possible is a great place to start. The Miura VS is immensely popular, and for good reasons. The shoe comes in a women’s and men’s version with the major distinction between the male and female versions of the shoe being the colors and size of the shoe.

The La Sportiva Miura VS, winner of the Rock and Ice – Best in Gear, does not fit into every niche, but is an excellent intermediate to advanced climbing shoe that excels in precise edging and placement on slab to overhanging face-climbing.

The ideal terrain: Overhanging sport routes, bouldering, gym climbing and technical face climbing.  I do not recommend these shoes for trad climbing, especially with the triple Velcro system.

Personal Review:

After my first pair of climbing shoes got too old and smelly, I decided to bump up to a more intermediate climbing shoe. The Miuras were the right choice for precise toe performance on small footholds, heel hooking and edging. I feel like a ballerina because I’m so on point with my toes. Toe chips that once seemed impossible are comfortable ledges compared to the flatter toe box shoes I had previously. When I first got them and put them on, I thought I horribly misjudged the size and that I could never climb in them, because they were so tight and painful. It took almost a month of climbing once or twice per week for the shoes to break in “comfortably.” I went down a full size from my street shoes, which was painful at first but perfect after the break in period. The shoes are still painful in the toes to this day, and not comfortable to walk around in. I am actually forming a callous on both of my big toes from the shoes, but I am weirdly proud of it. I chose the VS (as oppo

sed to the original Miura’s) because of the micro seconds saved with a Velcro system. Who has time for laces? The triple Velcro system enables a precise fit and is a perfect compromise for laces.

Update: I have now had the Miuras for about 4 months and I climb 2 or 3 times a week and my opinions have changed since I first started this blog. They have started loosening in the heel and a peculiar damage is occurring in the leather around the toes, as shown in the photo, from bending my foot. I worry about the longevity of my shoes because of this bend. I also regret having gotten the VS Velcro system because I believe that laces would fit better around my narrow, small foot now that the leather has stretched even more. Regardless, these are still my go-to shoes for sport and bouldering and I still highly recommend them to anyone looking for an intermediate shoe. When these retire, I will likely get the Miura Women’s instead of the Miura VS.

For specific shoe specs visit the La Sportiva website:

For the Men’s VS:

http://www.sportiva.com/men-s/men-s-footwear/miura-vs.html

For the Women’s VS:

http://www.sportiva.com/activity/activity-climbing/miura-vs-womens.html

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