Scarpa Instinct VSR Climbing Shoe

I saw that Matt (on YouTube) said these were his fav bouldering shoes of 2017 and since he also said that he's a street nine (EUR 43) and has narrow feet, just like me, I was keen to give them a try. The Epic TV size calculator suggested a EUR 44 for me, but Matt said that he used a EUR 42. So I ordered those two pairs and all inbetween, so that I could find the perfect fit. I ended up going for EUR 43 - my street shoe size. The size down (EUR 42.5) just made my toes overlap and were painful to the extent that I couldn't concentrate on anything but my feet. These are good shoes. The rubber is very sticky and the sole is soft enough that you can open it up to smear, despite the aggressive downturn. The heel is a bit baggy at the bottom, but it stays in place.

My background: I'm a short (163 cm), light (54 kg), intermediate indoor climber (onsight 6c routes, top 7a+ after a few attempts) and these were the third ever pair of climbing shoes I owned.

Fit: I'm UK 7 (EU 41) on the street and went for UK 6 (EU 39.5) with the Instinct VS-R.Out of the box, the fit was perfect (in stark contrast to the Instinct Lace, which has much less give). I have wider feet and appreciate the space in the toebox. As a reference, my big and second toe are about the same distance from my heel.

As my first pair of soft shoes, I've really noticed that these shoes make it hard to focus your weight on small holds. They are unforgiving! But I'm guessing over time my technique will develop so that I'll be better able to use those toe muscles to get weight transfer. In contrast, a more rigid shoe like my Instinct Lace (featuring Vibram XS Edge) has no problems. Of course, these soft shoes (featuring Vibram XS Grip2) are smearing beasts. I never have any fear of coming off a volume on a slab or when bridging onto a wall while climbing in an indoors corner route. This grip is important, because being downturned, while advantageous for transferring weight onto holds on overhangs, is not working in their favour regarding smearing. you gotta protect these shoes - one slide down an indoor slab can take a while millimetre of rubber off the edge. I use these shoes only for hard bouldering, because even though I only climb once a week and try to climb with little foot readjustment, they do get worn fast.

I hear that the Instinct VS is somewhere between the two shoes in terms of flexibility. This might be my next purchase!

Minor point: the soles of your feet will become very orange after wearing these. You can wash the shoes with warm water to remove some dye, although make sure to let them dry thoroughly. Antifungal spray in the shoes helps keep them fresh.

Purchased them because i needed to replace my Instinct SR shoes, and that was a tough task because SR were a perfect pair of shoes for me. After a few sessions they started to break in and now the heel hooking is perfect, toe hooking is just as good. The velcro strap makes it easy to put no and off. Hope this review persuades you into purchase, cause they won't dissapoint.

Muy parecidos al instinct vs pero notablemente mas blandos. A lo mejor podria haberlos bajado medio numero con respecto a los otros, pero el ajuste es muy muy parecido. Un poco mas sensibles. Si te gusta el VS estos te gustarán como mínimo lo mismo.

This edgy little homeboy is way comfier than I would imagine, and to break them in takes almost no time at all. It's not the most sensitive bad boy out there, but it sticks to an edge like Alex Honnold, and it's has a nice and flexy split sole. Toe hook-orama and heel hook bonanza is some of the keywords for this thang when bouldering. Fits like a friendly glove when not down-sized.

This is my second pair of Instinct VSRs - in both my new and my old pairs, the fit feels almost tailored to my feet with the slight exception of the heel, where there is a bit of extra room. As my last pair began to wear significantly, this extra room caused the shoe to slip off my foot in aggressive heel hooks but to begin with, I couldn't have asked for better heel-hooking shoes (and as a shorter climber, I heel hook a lot!).

The upper velcro strap could definitely use reinforcements, as this eventually snapped entirely on one of my shoes but this was after the toe had already gone all the way through.

The rubber of the top of the shoe is very sticky and makes for excellent toe hooks, lasting even once the rest of the shoe had had it.

I had only used the shoes ~2x a week for primarily indoor bouldering for 5 months when they reached the condition as shown on the right in the photo below. However, in this time, the Instincts were unbelievably comfortable for a shoe that was so snug (I have them in 38, same as my street-shoe size) and were perfect for everything from smearing on granite slabs to plastic overhangs and I use them for sport climbing as well as bouldering. I could leave them on for longer periods of time (30min) but this could be because I didn't downsize too much.

Here is a comparison of an old shoe with a new one: http://imgur.com/a/BPEnY

Bought the shoes to replace Solutions. Fit feels quite similar, slightly more asymmetric with slightly narrower heel. Very good closure system compared to solutions\futura. Took 3-4 sessions to break in, however still cannot wear them for more then 10min.
Primary use - bouldering indoors.
Size-wise - I bought it in 39; I wear 41-41.5 in regular shoes, 38 - in LSpa Solutions\Futura; 37.5 - in Pythons; 39 - Scarpa Drago (feels much tighter due to narrower toe box).

Great service - the shoes arrived in good time and I could track my order easily which was reassuring as I live in the UK.
I am happy with the shoes - yet to use them but they arrived exactly as they were described. Great fit - especially on the heal.
The delivery box and box containing the shoes arrived quite bashed (understandably when coming from so far) but this worried me in case I had to return them. Luckily I am keeping the shoes :)