A strong link between the climber and their shoe

For a climber, a climbing shoe is much more than just an accessory. While choosing their rope, harness, or quickdraws may seem arbitrary, it’s because these products are somewhat external equipment to the climber.
In contrast, a climbing shoe is an integral part of the climber. Like a wizard's magic wand, choosing a climbing shoe is a very personal, even instinctive decision. Because wearing a shoe means becoming one with it. Wearing a SCARPA climbing shoe means imagining, dreaming, thinking, and feeling the climb, without even having to place your foot on a hold. Because unlike other mountain equipment, a climbing shoe truly defines a climber's identity.


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Flexibility, rigidity, asymmetry, camber, closure system, choice of materials and rubber, technologies used… There are a multitude of models with various characteristics. The SCARPA range consists of about twenty climbing shoes, all different, so that every climber can find the ideal shoe based on their preferences and intended use. To complete your gear, it may also be relevant to choose your women's hiking shoes according to your practice and needs.

Making a climbing shoe, a story of know-how

The making of a climbing shoe is extremely technical and requires exceptional know-how, secretly kept for over 80 years in SCARPA's Italian factories.
Why? Because a climbing shoe is worn close to the foot, fitted, to provide maximum precision and transmit as much force as possible. It connects the climber to the rock. Thus, the foot must perfectly conform to all the shapes of the shoe.


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Putting on a climbing shoe, therefore, applies enormous pressure inside it. And it is this very shoe that allows climbers to place their feet on holds so small that they sometimes do not exceed a few millimeters. At the moment of pushing, just imagine the pressure that applies inside the shoe!
That’s why a climbing shoe is one of the most sophisticated shoes in the world. Its manufacturing requires unique and ancestral know-how. SCARPA has made it one of its specialties since 1938. Founded in Asolo, in the Dolomites, the Italian brand quickly established itself as a leader in the climbing shoe market. A pioneer in the outdoor field, SCARPA has always been able to offer products renowned for their quality of manufacture and their innovative and high-performance aspects.
"Working on a climbing shoe is so beautiful", declares one of the brand's workers.


Heinz Mariacher



Some SCARPA products require more than 130 operations to construct a single shoe. And each step of this long manufacturing process, which demands a lot of patience, precision, and feeling, requires the hand of a collaborator. The manufacturing time of a single climbing shoe is therefore much greater than any other shoe, like a sneaker or a city shoe, which requires less than 30 manual operations.
Thus, it is above all the passion and unique know-how of the brand that make SCARPA shoes so distinctive. Most of the workers who work for the company are primarily passionate about mountains, climbing, and outdoor activities. Driven by the pursuit of excellence, it is passion that primarily motivates SCARPA collaborators.
The main ingredient in the SCARPA recipe? It is therefore the eternal love for climbing.