[remus]

Anyone had a chance to try out the new Scarpa boosters and got an opinion on the heel?

I'm breaking a pair in at the mo and really not getting on with the heel. The rubber strip down the back just seems really slippery? I thought it might be my imagination so had a board session and did a side by side comparison with a pair of instinct vsrs on a few heel hook problems (forgive me father for I have sinned), and the vsrs do just stick better.

I thought the whole point of the little orange rubber insert was that it was stickier than normal heel rubber?

Ed: for balance, the rest of the shoe is friggin ace.

[tomtom]

I bought a pair pre lockdown to use on Pit Problem - and the strip did seem to grip a bit better than the heel on vsrs or my new fave instinct laces.

It wasn’t a magic bullet though - as I’ve clearly not got up it yet 😂

My view was maybe slightly better but not much. Felt more precise though...

[countyyoungin]

I've found that heel pretty useless so far, I'm not sure if the orange rubber is supposed to be more sticky (which it deffo isnt)  or whether it just protrudes enough for them to say its a catch heel(?). Its annoying because the toe is so good! If your going scarpa i think the VSR's will always have the best heel on em

[RobK]

They put a similar (blue) strip on the Instinct SR and I thought it was awful. As others have said, frustrating when the toe box is so good.

[remus]

Hmm, sounds like mixed reviews.

Just thinking out loud, I wonder whether perhaps the orange stuff is actually softer than the usual xs grip, but because it's in a thin strip it's tricky to get the same purchase you get with a wider heel like on the VSRs.

Tomtom, it sounds like techy heel hooks might be a bit of a redeeming feature. I can imagine problems where you could hook the lip of the rubber strip on something being a bit easier.

[spidermonkey09]

Isn't this a predominantly bouldering shoe? Sounds like the strip is solving a problem which doesn't exist; its pretty rare to use your heels as a skyhook surely in contrast to the general need for friction. What on earth were they thinking?

[tomtom]

My personal fave heel hooking shoe (and I realise there are lots of criteria - esp fit and baginess etc) we’re old school dragons - where you had a narrow strip of 4mm rubber running down and around the heel. It could be used on crimp sized holds really well... and was sticky.

I kinda hoped the booster heel would be like that but it’s not. But it’s certainly grippier than the blue streak on the New VS slipper...

Whilst we’re on instinct heels the VS and VSR heel rubber has delaminated and started to peel quite a lot at the edges on mine - when I’ve been using the heel a lot. Bad technique probably

[Stu Littlefair]

Isn't this a predominantly bouldering shoe? Sounds like the strip is solving a problem which doesn't exist; its pretty rare to use your heels as a skyhook surely in contrast to the general need for friction. What on earth were they thinking?

Quite the opposite. Especially on limestone and granite there are many many heel hooks where a "lip" on the heel will catch on some part of the rock and provide a better heel hook. Hence the phenomenon of people buying 5:10 Velcros and Moccs purely for a single heel hook on their project.

[spidermonkey09]

Quite the opposite. Especially on limestone and granite there are many many heel hooks where a "lip" on the heel will catch on some part of the rock and provide a better heel hook. Hence the phenomenon of people buying 5:10 Velcros and Moccs purely for a single heel hook on their project.

Cheers, thats interesting; exposing my ignorance! I can see the logic of a small spike or crystal providing a point for the heel to hook/catch onto but hadn't realised it was so commonplace, or that it might be better than the friction from a more generic heel.

[SA Chris]

Looks like a case of horses for coarseness

Spike might be better if the rock has a lip or something to catch on, but for more "frictiony" type hooks a larger surface area is probably better. I remember using the first Mad Rocks with the "ribbed" heel and finding them a bit of a revelation compared to the Anasazis I'd been using til then. 

[Andy F]

I kinda hoped the booster heel would be like that but it’s not. But it’s certainly grippier than the blue streak on the New VS slipper...

Teflon is grippier than that blue strip on the SR. Even the Stix heel works better.

[sdm]

I think the biggest problem with the blue strip on the Instinct SR is that it is indented compared to the rest of the heel. So it is quite hard to get the blue rubber to actually contact the rock unless you heelhook with your foot completely vertical. The black rubber on the sides of the heel is also quite stiff so you don't get much feel.

On the Instinct VS/VSR, the black strip is much wider and also sticks out further than the rest of the heel. On heelhooks where your heel is on quite sideways, this means the edge of the strip can catch and grip on to anything pointy. Tomtom: this is probably why yours keep delaminating here. Mine will often wear at this point and on the inside edge before I go through the toe because I spend so much time doing heelhooks and heel-toe cams on steep ground. I think there was also a batch that used inferior glue here because I've seen a couple of people with bad delamination on relatively new shoes.

I haven't tried the Booster but at least the yellow strip protrudes out from the rest of the rubber so it might be able to work more like the VS/VSR.

[tomtom]

For clarity - I have only worn my right booster on Pit Problem 😃 so it’s very much N=1 (problem and foot!!)