There’s one thing to be mentioned a few low-key, middle-of-the-road rock shoe that doesn’t demand an excessive amount of when it comes to foot power and ache tolerance but in addition delivers sufficient efficiency to make it a superb warmup, coaching, mileage, and sub-limit redpointing boot.
At a present worth level of simply $116 (down from $155), the Black Diamond Method is tough to beat in that area of interest. It’s additionally a hardy, well-built shoe that looks like it is going to stand up to just a few resoles and nonetheless maintain its final.
I climbed within the Black Diamond Method for 3 months, and fellow tester Dean slogged in them for 4 months. We educated on plastic, redpointed limestone and granite, and ran laps on routes we had wired. The Method proved to fill an essential function in a rock climber’s development, bridging from newbie to extra superior climbing and foot methods.
In brief: We discovered the Black Diamond Method was cozy and enjoyable to climb in up via the 5.12+/V5 vary. I used to be capable of push them more durable as soon as I wore down the surprisingly thick outsole. They ticked all of the packing containers they’re meant to tick and are a superb worth to your greenback, particularly on this period of $200-plus rock sneakers.
Black Diamond Climbing Shoes
Black Diamond is a relative newcomer to the rock shoe market, having launched the flat-lasted, beginner-friendly Momentum in 2017. The model adopted up shortly with the Zone, the Focus, the Aspect, and the Shadow.
While every had particular person sturdy factors, they didn’t, no less than in my testing, qualify as house runs. A shoe may need one or two standout options — such because the precision toebox on the Focus or the epic sensitivity of the Shadow — eclipsed by shortcomings like an amorphous final or sloppy heel.
With the Method and different upcoming fashions just like the bouldering-focused Method S and the high-end trad shoe the Aspect Pro, Black Diamond is edging (sure, pun supposed) towards holistically better-realized rock sneakers. It appears as in the event that they’re studying from their errors.
Black Diamond Method: Review
The Method is available in each males’s and girls’s variations and is a simple Velcro rock shoe — not too many bells and whistles right here. They have delicate asymmetry and a barely perceptible downturn.
Black Diamond prescribed a forefoot-only Soft Flex midsole and a break up woven tongue with microsuede lining. The sneakers flex a Kermit the Frog-green microsuede higher and a 3D molded heel cup. Finally, a double Velcro-strap closure and the aforementioned 4mm Black Label Fuse rubber outsole (3.25 mm on the ladies’s model) spherical out the reasonably priced rock shoe.
They aren’t talons or banana sneakers, neither ostentatious nor flashy. But out of the field, they regarded like essentially the most well-designed, ergonomically formed, full-service rock sneakers I’d seen thus removed from Black Diamond. The Method regarded promising, and Dean thought so, too.
Limestone, Sandstone, Granite, and ‘Gymstone’
We examined on vertical, technical limestone at Shelf Road, Colo., on steeps and semi-steeps on the Fountain sandstone of the Flatirons, Colo. (grippy, just like the Red River Gorge, however with extra pebbles), and on granite. We additionally scaled plastic — health club routes and boulders and a smattering of 40-degree MoonBoarding.
We each wore our street-shoe dimension within the Method, which is a medium-volume shoe. However, even with my high-volume ft, I wager I may have come down a half dimension for higher precision and nonetheless had a yielding match.
The delicate downturn, which let our ft sit in an virtually impartial place, and mushy microsuede uppers made for an immediately cozy really feel. The Velcro straps are thick and well-situated however didn’t have a ton of play, so don’t look to them an excessive amount of to refine sizing.
“I felt the sizing was true,” mentioned Dean. “As with any shoe, there was a break-in period for the Methods, but overall they felt comfortable and secure around my foot.”
For me, it took an evening stretching the sneakers out on the sofa and some days within the health club to get the conformity I needed, which is about commonplace for the style.
Testing
Dean’s first testing forays have been at Shelf Road, the place he felt just like the Black Diamond Method did an amazing job out of the field on 5.10 to five.11+ face — pocket toeing and average edging. For Dean, the sneakers had reassuring heft and stability. The beefy midsole assist provided mid-range suggestions intermediate climbers want as they break into larger grades and thinner footholds.
I broke the sneakers in on plastic, after which my first time on rock was at Button Rock Reservoir, Colo. I’ve a Mini Traxion circuit on the streamside granite, beginning with some edging-intensive slabs and transferring on to a gently overhanging wall with crimps and horns (“outie” holds) and inset seams (“innies”).
The Method carried out finest on the “outies,” standing properly on crimps right down to about dime-edged dimension. They unfold out capably on smears and gave delicate grabbing traction on the horns and extruded crimps on a steep 5.12a. On “innies,” nonetheless, on a 5.13a linkup that climbs seams and pockets, the rounded toebox — whereas a pleasant contact when it comes to consolation and long-session put on — was too cumbersome to offer safe penetration.
The sneakers wouldn’t slide all the best way in, making the sequences harder. But Dean did give the Black Diamond Method excessive marks — 9 out of 10 — on pure jam cracks. He appreciated the thick rand and half-forefoot toe patch.
Downsides
We each famous some efficiency deficits from two points. The sole felt too thick, and the Fuse rubber wasn’t that grippy. Black Diamond states that the only real is 4 mm (tapering to three.5 mm farther again on the foot), an acceptable depth for a shoe just like the Method. But as with rope diameters, what’s 4 mm to at least one model is likely to be 5 mm to a different.
To us, it felt like 5 mm and even 6 mm of rubber underfoot, which nuked sensitivity, no less than till we wore the only real down. And I’ll confess I’m not an enormous fan of the Black Label Fuse rubber for tech footwork. It was too squishy for precision edging.
Noted Dean, “I felt the rubber was just not that sticky to hold an edge needed for slightly overhanging terrain and bouldering,” lamenting that he couldn’t get sufficient grip to push previous V5 and 5.12. However, given how well-built the Method’s really feel, I think about resoling with a thinner sole within the compound of your alternative would render higher outcomes.
Where We’d Use Them
The Method did a bang-up job of what they have been meant to do. They can assist newer and intermediate climbers bridge the hole from their first pair of sneakers into steeper, extra aggressive climbing. The Black Diamond Method can assist in enhancing footwork expertise whereas concurrently constructing foot and toe power.
Other than the overly thick, tad-too-squishy sole, they’d no apparent detriments and scored 5 out of 10 or larger on all efficiency elements, making them above common throughout the board. Which, for me, was a primary for any Black Diamond shoe.
I appreciated them for warming up on the crag and on health club boulders, leads a quantity or so under my restrict, chucking laps on routes I had dialed, and gym-route mileage. They have been finest suited to off-vertical to barely overhanging terrain. But I may get them to dig in on steeps in a pinch, particularly as they broke in.
They have been nice for lengthy health club periods, for granite on angles skewing towards vertical. They additionally labored properly for multi-pitch sport climbs with some crossover into trad and lengthy faces routes that required fixed foot assist.
Black Diamond Method Shoes: Conclusion
With their forgiving final and rounded toe, the Method isn’t essentially the most exact shoe, neither is it meant to be. But they have been a lot comfy, with good air flow because of the break up, woven tongue. And they did stealthy-good heel hooking because of the 3D molded heel cup, which was deep and supportive with out being overbearing.
The sneakers are additionally well-crafted — particularly for the value — and can maintain up properly to a number of resoles. In truth, the Black Diamond Method might solely enhance with age by carrying the producer’s sole right down to a extra best depth. Or one may have them resoled with a crisper, extra edging-friendly compound.
- Comfort: 7/10
- Grabbing: 6/10
- Edging: 6/10
- Smearing: 6/10
- Hooking: 8/10
- Scumming: 6/10
- Jamming: 8/10
- Precision: 5/10
- Sensitivity: 5/10
- Aesthetics: 5/10
Check Price at REICheck Price at Black Diamond
