[notLeftHanded]

Longtime lurker, first time posting, blah blah blah,

Any ideas on a pair of rock shoes to compliment some moccs and blancos?  I've been looking at 5.10 quantums, dragons; testarossas; and scarpa magos.  I tried on some testarossas in the shop, and while I did get that vacuum seal thing and really like the toe, there was still dead space in the heel.  I've got these skinny feet with tiny heels that go wide at the toes, and haven't found a single shoe that really fits the shape.  Help?

appendix:
 - I live in Canada
 - They'll see some gym climbing, but I have a pair of beaters for that
 - moccasyms are UK 6.5 sized for comfort, toes almost flat
 - blancos are UK 7, with half curled toes but enough extra heel space for my keys and mobile
 - testarossas in 39 seems to be my size, accounting for break in

[mrjonathanr]

People will generally recommend what THEY like to wear, but for wider forefoot and good heel you might want to try Instinct VSs. I like my Magos too, but not for smearing.

[tomtom]

Pretty much every shoe I've tried has had dead space in the heel -

Try different makes rather than different models - manufacturers tend to favour certain shapes of feet in their designs..

[notLeftHanded]

Admittedly, I haven't been able to try some scarpas, looks like consensus is they fit wide up front with narrow mid-foot and heel.  I'm mostly buying online, so every bit of information helps.  Anecdotes about fit, sizing, performance would be perfect.

I've seen the magos and instinct VSs portrayed as downturned allrounders leaning towards the steep; mr jon, what's your pick?

[mrjonathanr]

Hi Dexter(?),

I have both. Magos I love . They are a perfect fit, really stiff around the toe and a joy on limestone.
Currently I'm just climbing on grit and need something softer. The Instinct VS is a bit softer making it a better all-round shoe, you could happily climb on limestone and grit with it (though it's still quite firm so I've got old pink Anasazis for really smeary stuff), whereas the Magos are more limited, so it depends on what rock types you'll be climbing on.

The heel on the VS's is perfect, there's no dead space for me.

I think you need to try them on to check if the last matches your foot....but if you're going to take a punt and need an all round shoe, I'd go for the VS.

I take 41 in both and am 42+ in street shoes.. I think that would be 8 vs 9 in american shoe sizes.

[notLeftHanded]

Name's Ken, i don't think we've met tho.

I went with a pair of instinct velcros, got a good price .  The interwebs generally say to size 1-1.5 eur from street, so I got them in size 40, also because the vendor was out of 39.5s.  First impressions-wise, they fit around training shoe size, and not as snug as I'd usually like a new shoe on my left foot, as it's smaller.  Toe fits nice and wide, maybe a little too high volume, again only for my diminutive left foot.  Ah the heel: finally, no bagging down under or out the back, but narrower would be nicer; maybe I just need to downsize a little more.
I'm sticking with em, as between the shoes' features, the price, and my laziness, they're spectacular, even though the perfect fit still eludes me.  We'll see how they break in.
Oh and I don't think I can say anything about performance that hasn't already been said, so I won't bother.

[mrjonathanr]

Jolly good 

Dexter = right in Latin ie not left (which is Sinister)