[robertostallioni]

I'm in camp Crouch. No, literally.

[Richie Crouch]

I found them brilliant when broken in for font, being soft and also toe down so you can feel what your doing really nicely on steeper stuff as well as walls/slabs.They seemed a lot better than moccasyms on wall and slab climbs and more useful than teams on steeper stuff that didn't require crucial heels. Found the projects really good in font unless you had to pull on a heel where it came off a lot.

Wore Jet 7's for pretty much most things in magic last year and in the cave all year till I wore through the crozzly rubber on top of the right toe. Good shoes and had 2 pairs of them.

[tomtom]

Five Ten Blackwing   
 
What a brilliant name for a rock boot. It makes me think of some stealth attack helicopter...

[robertostallioni]

Better than,

"Yeehah, MadRock Jester's dead."

[tomtom]

Better than,

"Yeehah, MadRock Jester's dead."

  deserves a wad for sharpness....

[BB]

"You can be my blackwing man anytime"
"Bullshit, you can be mine"

[benpritch]

Stubbs & Richie, you're the only 2 people I've heard that say that.
Everyone I know with jet 7's use them as wall shoes and they bag out like mad and when I tried the teams on, I thought I was going to break them

teams are amazing. like V10s but way better IMO

[Phil-p]

Hi Richie, wot site was it that you found the info on the new sportivas. They look the dogs

[Richie Crouch]

It was just a photo off the same page all of the 5.10 photos were linked from:

http://www.rockclimbing.com/Articles/Gear_and_Reviews/Outdoor_Retailer_Summer_Market_2010_Wrap-up_1134.html

[Paul B]

The heel on the velcro dragons looks a bit dodgy, like the kind that leave a massive air gap everywhere but on your achilles?

The arrowheads however; Potentially NSFW.

[Doylo]

I like my teams but they are too hard to get on (resulting in inevitable eventual rippage)

[Stubbs]

The heel on the velcro dragons looks a bit dodgy...

It looks exactly the same as the heel on my Dragons, question?

[Paul B]

earlier ones had a different heel, voila:



For me, those ^ fit better than the new style, which I'm still avoiding breaking in and actually, for everything recently I've been favouring whites anyway.

[Stubbs]

Ah yeah I had some of those, but any self respecting punter has worn those out by now!  The plasticy bits where the laces run broke on mine.

I actually prefer the new heel as the old ones went a bit too squidgy for my liking.

Can imagine you've been favouring the blanco's, not much call for a downturned toe on Preposterous Tales!

[Paul B]

I was meaning during the trip and on relevant stuff. Any boot will do for the trad grade I'm climbing at maybe even ones with nails.

[cofe]

i prefer the old heel too. the gap in the rubber allowed the diagonal rubber strip to grip and hold the heel much better. now they're just plastered in rubber and (slightly) less secure/precise I feel.

[wiain]

Dudes. Having had all of these on my feet (albeit sitting on the floor at a tradeshow) I have to say the Blackwings appeared mostly gash. It felt much more like a softened and lightened Jet7 than a Dragon. On he other hand, they haven't even decided which rubber to put on so they maight be substantially changed before (if*) they come out.  *Word is they may be dropped.

The Hornet seemed the Dogs. Much improved on the project. 4mm rubber and similar stiffness to the Team but possible to get into without tearing your middle fingers off.

The Arrowhead sample was too big for Tim and I to be able to be sure how we felt about it. Probably very commercial and not bad but neither of us were excited by it. We'd really need to climb in it to be sure it's not a Matador.

The Lace-Up dragon is still going to be in the line.

I'm told there is an outside chance of us getting pairs to test so will let y'all know how we get on if we do.

[Stubbs]

Did you see these?
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_KCpkTLUIzzE/TFxIo1e3TzI/AAAAAAAAHEQ/k-apHUCYssk/s1600/Five+Ten+Quantum.jpg



They look like a Dragon with an Anasazi heel; are they just trying a load of different concepts out?

(From http://climbingholdreview.blogspot.com/2010/08/new-stuff-august.html )

[wiain]

Did you see these?

They look like a Dragon with an Anasazi heel; are they just trying a load of different concepts out?

Yep. Very crudely they are a downturned version of the Verde last. Very definately not a Dragon. What the pictures aren't really showing is how assymetric (or not) things are.

The Arrowhead and Quantum were both pretty conventional straight lasts with a downturn. The Quantum felt promising to us so perhaps the Arrowhead also would be decent in the right size. Both seemed like a decent choice for the modern youngster who thinks they need a downturned shoe for bouldering but really isn't man (or woman) enough for Dragons or Teams.

For the descerning Lady or Gentleman in the non-punter category I reckon Dragon, Team and Hornet will be the big guns in the armoury.


And before anyone asks. We did see the super-moc. It looked awful, felt good to me and bad to Tim so we're reserving judgement for now.

The high-top anasazi velcro (forget the name) I absolutely will not discuss. I have standards to uphold.

[Stubbs]

Thanks man, it will be interesting to see which ones they run with, and good news about the Dragon staying on the lineup!

[Paul B]

they need to get rid of that purple ASAP, someone might think you were wearing Scarpa slippers or something daft.

[wiain]

they need to get rid of that purple ASAP, someone might think you were wearing Scarpa slippers or something daft.

What, you don't want to look like you're wearing a pair of purple pythons on your feet? I kinda liked it. Perhaps I'm wierd.

[Wipey Why]

It would appear that Five Ten have started selling the Blackwing. There are Male and Female versions 

http://www.rockcreek.com/five-ten/blackwing-womens/

http://www.rockcreek.com/five-ten/blackwing-mens/

[Paul B]

Looks good to me.

[Johnny Brown]

Not the most technical looking toe I've ever seen on a boot though...