To get the best possible results from resoling your climbing shoes — a good old comfortable pair with a great new sole, at a low repair cost — you need to get the timing right when sending them to Lezolep.
First, it’s important to know the difference between the rand and the sole:
The rand is made from much thinner rubber. It protects your toes and helps the climbing shoe hold its shape, running roughly from the toe joints and wrapping around the edge of the shoe, under the sole. It’s only really used in climbing occasionally, such as toe hooking on overhangs or crack climbing.
The sole is bonded to the rand and made from a thicker layer of rubber compound that, thanks to its properties, provides excellent grip on the rock.
If you send your climbing shoes in for repair in time, the rand rubber probably won’t need replacing — so your shoes will better keep the unique shape your feet have moulded into them. That’s because when the rand rubber is replaced, the new rubber is stretched over the shoe with a special cobbler’s last inserted inside, so after the repair the shoe takes on the shape dictated by the last — meaning it’ll look more like a new shoe than the one you’d already broken in to fit your foot.
What’s more, the repair takes considerably longer and uses more material, which is reflected in a higher price. If you want to avoid that, watch out for the following signs that it’s time to send your climbing shoes to Lezolep for resoling:
The ideal time to repair this climbing shoe has already passed. Part of the rand rubber at the toe is now fully exposed, has been climbed on, and may be too worn to save during the repair.
This one is completely worn through, so the rand will definitely need replacing too. What’s more, the stitching or the upper beneath the rubber may also be damaged.
This example shows the perfect time to send your climbing shoes to Lezolep. The sole has worn down significantly, but it has still protected the rand from excessive damage.
At Lezolep, we’re happy to repair climbing shoes that need a new rand, and we’ll replace the midsole too if necessary. If the rand doesn’t need replacing, we leave it intact. This helps keep your repair costs down while preserving the unique shape of your climbing shoes as much as possible.
However, we can’t tell in advance whether the rand will need to be replaced. Even if there’s no visible hole, the rubber may already be too thin or worn and could get damaged when the sole is removed. It could also tear soon after the resole. That’s why we always replace it based on need and individual assessment — which also means we can only confirm the final repair price once the work is done.