Many people wonder if you can use the same pair of shoes for rock climbing indoors and climbing outdoors. The short answer is yes, you can use the same pair of shoes for indoor vs outdoor climbing.
Although indoor gym climbing and outdoor rock climbing do have some pretty significant differences, shoe design isn’t one of them! The same shoes you use in the gym will hold just as well on the outdoor boulders and holds. There are however two factors you should consider: durability and comfort.
Comfort
The climbing crag often isn’t as easy to navigate as the gym is.A t times you may have to walk a significant distance from route to route. Especially if you start learning to climb longer routes, you will ewant a shoe which is comfortable to wear for extended periods of time. In climbing gyms, you have the opportunity to take your shoes on and off all the time. Outdoors, you might not want to do this due to rocks, cacti, sand, etc.
Durability
Using the same pair of shoes for climbing indoors and outdoors means they will wear out twice as fast. This isn’t a huge concern if you don’t climb all the time, but most serious climbers will have a “beater” pair of shoes for the gym, and save their performance-oriented shoes for the outside. Of course, this depends on your goals – maybe you care more about sending in the gym, and would want to save your best shoes for there.
Certain styles of outdoor climbing – specifically, crack climbing – can also be very destructive on shoes.
Overall
There is no need to have different pairs of shoes for indoor vs outdoor rock climbing. Most serious climbers will end up with a few different pairs of climbing shoes over time, but if you are a beginner just dipping your toes in, don’t feel pressured to run and buy a new pair! Whatever you have for the gym will work just fine if you want to dip your toes in the great outdoors.
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Gym to Crag 