Five Ten Projects

A lot of people have been asking me about this shoe recently and I am excited to finally be able to share some of my first hand experience with them.  First of all, the rubber is amazing.  Its softness allows you to "grab" things with your feet in a way that I have not seen since the discontinued Mantra.  Its heel cup is the best fitting I have tried, which is partially due to the softness of the rubber, making it possible for the heel cup to conform to each persons heel differently. I am also a big fan of velcro and slipper shoes and I think the one velcro strap closure, in the style of the 5X, is the best of both worlds.

In terms of fit, I think this shoe fits feet a little differently from other Five Ten shoes I have tried.  While Five Ten seems to use a more narrow/medium to low volume foot design, as a person with very wide / high volume feet, I have never had a problem fitting into Five Ten shoes properly.  I have even thought for a long time having a wide foot gave me an advantage of filling the whole shoe more completely.  The Project, however, is extremely narrow and I was not able to really get a good fit in the toe-box and maintain a good fit in the heel and mid area.

Bottom line:  Get this shoe now if you like climbing with soft rubber and have a narrow foot.  It is by far the best shoe I have seen or tried that fits these parameters.  Should you have a wider foot, I would suggest trying a pair on a shop if you can find them before getting a pair to see if they work for you.  Otherwise, the Dragon is an amazing shoe and mine of preference since it fits wider feet so well.