The orange auto-lockers were actually my first set of locking biners and they have been used constantly in the gym and I usually go to them first for anchors and rappelling. They have held up very well. All the other lockers on my rack are BDs and they are great too.

A recent experience made me like my Triact biners even more - I bought a pair of OP auto-lockers at the end of this past season and one of the pair has already been retired (freak torque of the auto-locking mechanism) so I am sticking with the Petzl biners or standard screw gates from now on.

Being fairly new to climbing, with slowly improving footwork, it took a while for me to realize that my Sportiva Mojos were way too big (very comfortable as a result though!). As I set out looking for a new pair the Evolvs came very highly recommended. The response time and level of service from Brian was very impressive. In less than a week he promptly answered my fit questions, shipped from CA to NYC and I got out on them in the gym. Amazing customer service.

The best aspect of the shoe compared to my Mojos is the rubber - nothing against the Sportivas but it was a whole different experience climbing on the Evolvs. I haven't tried the Stealth C4 or other brands, but wow, this was a huge difference.

As I'm sure there are many fellow new climbers looking for shoe recommendations, I can say without reservation that this would be a great shoe to start with and that Evolv is a great company to deal with.