[Paul B]

Has anyone tried a pair of these? I was hoping for a 'velcro dragon' (to replace a pair of absolutely thrashed dragons that are really soft but still my go-to shoes on anything vaguely steep).

I tried a pair of Tenaya Oasis on as they look promising but they were incredibly narrow and the velcro-closure was a bit of a faff.

[Evil]

I've been using the old brown/beigy colour ones for the past year or so, and have been super pleased with them. They're sticky, you can pull really well with the toe, the heel is comfortable compared to some Five Ten shoes. I also find them very comfortable quite quickly as they are quite soft, and the shape of Five Ten shoes suits my feet. The softness presents the only downside in that I find the rubber wears quite quickly, but I think that's probably true of all shoes of this style, and I would prefer the stickiness while it lasts over stiffer longer lasting shoes. Depending on your size, BananaFingers (and maybe some other places) have some of the old ones on sale - http://www.bananafingers.co.uk/fiveten-blackwing-old-style-p-1904.html

I've not used Dragons (mainly because of my hatred for lace up shoes), so I'm afraid I can't compare them.

[Paul B]

Are we talking about the same shoe? The older versions were black with garish red stripes:



(Regardless - thanks for the reply).

[Evil]

Yeah, I call that brown/beigy, but they're the ones!

[Jack.G]

Upgraded from Arrowheads with mind fixed on Dragons, Teams or Blackwings. Both the Dragons and BWs were size for size but, for me anyway, the Dragons win outright. Softer, much better feel all-round and the laces really make a huge difference. There was not much between the heels but again the dragons fitted me better, still not perfect unfortunatley.

The main thing that put me off the BW's was the tighter toe-box where the outside and knukcle of my little toe on both feet was painful after a minute.

Straight out of the box, ie not broken in, I felt the BW's to be an aggressive version of the VCS.

[Paul B]

The thing is, dragons have been tweaked so much it's very hard to know which version you actually have...

[Jack.G]

Dont know if its any hep but got them 6mnths ago from Needlesports straight out of a stock delivery, they were opening the packing boxes to find my size, was like xmas!

[Paul B]

Interesting thoughts. You can't be sure what FiveTen have supplied unless you followed your shoes from being a piece of rubber through to arriving at your feet unfortunately!