FiveTen Anasazi Verde

Verde versus Lace Up : the battle

Anasazi Verde

There hasn?t been many new models for hard routes produced by FiveTen recently, just some small changes like the heal on some models or the rubber on others. Changes that don?t seem important at first sight but who create sometime a huge difference...

In 2006 FiveTen released a new sort of rubber, the Stealth Onyxx on the Galileo. In a couple of months that model was the most sold by the American brand thanks to the incredible friction the new rubber provided. FiveTen didn?t wait long before spreading that rubber to all the anasazi models. The velcro was the first to change, than the Lace-up who is now called Anasazi Verde.

The Verde is thus the little sister of the Lace-up, one of the best models from FiveTen, but will it be as good as its predecessor? After couple of months of intense testing indoors and outdoors we could see all the differences.

First of all, the new Onyxx rubber. This rubber offers much more friction the previous C4 who already had a really good reputation (25% more)! One of the differences between the Onyxx and the Verde is the suppleness. The Onyxx is suppler, thus the Verde can be used on more steep surfaces than its predecessors mostly used in vertical and slightly overhanging walls. Now you can feel better the footholds in overhanging rocks. Concerning its lifetime, it is at least as good as the old Stealth rubber. After 3 months using the Verde, the rubber still looks really good.

Other important change: the heal. The Verde now has the new velcro?s heal nicknames "magic fingers". Your feet won?t go out anymore of your shoe while heal hooking, on a the negative points of the Lace-up. The heal doesn?t move in the shoe anymore and offers a good friction. I didn?t have to complain neither about any sort of pain on the heal as you can have on other models.

Now concerning the comfort. I used the Lace-up for quite some time and I can say they weren?t really comfortable? As soon as a route was over I hurried to get my shoes off because of the pain. From this point of view I didn?t recognize at all the old Lace-up the first time I put on the Verde! I had the feeling of putting my foot in velvet, even when trying a quite small size! This is because FiveTen reduced to the minimum the amount of free space in the shoe in order to hold the foot better. The top has now a bit of foam on the inside part too. Now if you do long routes in a vertical wall on small footholds of course sooner or later your feet are going to hurt, the Verde isn?t made for that kind of climbing. But in sports routes you?ll be able to arrive to the top without having your feet twisted like in the old models. The feeling of sweating is also better thanks to the top witch breaths a bit now. And I continued appreciating the fact they had laces. You can really adjust your shoe like you want. Either tight for small footholds, either loosened for more steep climbing.

Conclusion: the Verde wins easily the match, the most positive point being the comfort. The performance is even better for this climbing shoe that was already considered as one of the best in the world.
Beside of that FiveTen promises a couple of new models for the beginning of 2008, completing their choice witch is already quite big.

Technical details

Jérôme

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zenclimber

02/11/2009

Hoi Jerome,

Heb je de Anasazi Verde al eens vergeleken met de nieuwe (witte) Anasazi ?

De eerste heeft Onyx rubber, de laatste het bekende C4. In een review van http://www.bestcovery.com/node/44341?comment=1 staat dat de Verde meer een "comfort schoen" is...

Ik hoor graag van je!
groet
Marcel