I bought these over the 5.10 Coyotes due to the Coyotes not fitting my heel properly. Got them for roughly $59 with a student discount at EMS. After 3 months of use, they are becoming pretty much useless. The rubber lacks the grip needed for small footholds and is also wearing down quickly from failed attempts at smearing, which these shoes are horrible at. The only advantage to them is that they're a good shoe to buy if you're not sure that you'll be sticking with the sport, they're cheap, and they lace up, so you can get them nice and tight all the way up your foot. I plan on replacing these within the next month or two for a pair of shoes with stickier rubber.

These are super comfortable, have a nice rubber, and a killer heel. The stiffness of the shoe makes them supportive enough to climb in all day without your feet getting tired. The only downside is that the rubber wears out relatively quickly (which can be a pretty big downside). The good thing is that they're also relatively inexpensive, so it won't totally break your budget to get them resoled or get a whole new pair. Overall very nice shoes that make you realize you don't need most of the gimmicks found on more expensive pairs.

These are my first rock shoes, and I practically stole them from EMS for $55 on sale. They were the only thing EMS had in my size that actually fit. I have very narrow feet and seek out AA's with AAA or narrower heels in street shoes. Needless to say, shoe shopping of any kind is torture for me. Add a Morton's foot to that, and 98% of all rock climbing shoes are off the list for me. The Phoenix fit nearly perfectly on my right foot, and the lace-to-the-toe allowed me to customize the snugness. My slightly larger left foot had a bit more big toe curl, but the unlined leather has stretched to accomodate it, and after 4-5 climbs, I no longer have an unpleasant pressure point on the big toe knuckle. In fact, right now, they feel like they were custom made for my feet. After a couple months of once/week use, some indoors and outdoors, they still look practically new. I think they will last a while for me. My only question is the rubber. I have difficulty smearing in these, but can't tell if it is my lack of skills, or the shoe. When I finally do wear the soles out, I'll have them resoled with something good and sticky to see if it makes a difference. Meanwhile, since the shoe fits, I'll wear them.

The Mad Rock Phoenix is a inexpensive lace-up shoe for the beginner climber, whether gym, sport, or trad. It's the shoe you buy when you don't know if hangdoggin' at the crags every chance you get is really your 'thing'. If it is your thing, you move on to a better, more sticky and durable shoe. If it's not your shoe, you wear it out in a month or two and you're only out sixty bucks. It will not hold up under extreme use (2 to 3 trips to the rock/gym a week), it will not give you precision foot work on micro foot holds, it will not secure your foot well for extended periods of time in a crack. BUT... it will give you the chance to try out this beautiful sport long enough to decide if it's something you want to do, and become better at, in a better shoe.

I won a pair of these shoes in a raffle, during an Adpt-a-Crag day in september 2003, and they became my main shoe (I also had a pair of MR Flashes) until this past fall when I finally retired them to use on my home wall this past fall. I found the rubber to work nicely on the sharp granite and rough conglomerate that constitiutes most of the rock I climb on locally, and the soles have lasted all this time without wearing out excessively fast. just this past spring '06 I noticed two small holes in front of the big toe on the left foot. The serrations on the heel are smoothed down now too. It surprises me to read that others have foudn the shoes to wear out very quickly, but this has not been my experience.

I also found that the shoes rewarded careful footwork, though as they aged, they seemed to lose some smearing grip...perhaps the rubber has oxidized and hardened a bit over the 3 years of use.

These shoes are very comfortable, with a big square toe box that fits my foot well. I bought them a halfsize down from street, and they have stetched enough that I can curl my toes away from teh end of the toebox, but are still snug and give good feel.