Mad Rock Flash Review

This was the winner of our Best Buy award from 2010 to 2012. In 2013, it got upgraded to the Mad Rock Flash 2.0 which is our new best buy winner. T

Below is the review of the original Mad Rock Flash
It is about the cheapest shoe you can find and still performs solidly. It has a pointy toe design similar to the Five Ten Anasazi VCS. Mad Rock's custom "ribbed for your hooking pleasure" type heel design give you extra grip on certain heel hook moves (we don't heel hook much and don't notice it).

We like how beefy feeling the Velcro closure feels. It is coated in rubber and feels solid when you latch the shoes on. The inside tongue lining is made of a unique neoprene-like material. Overall, we find the Anasazi VCS is more precise on the small edges and the rubber lasts longer. The Flash rubber is very sticky, but seems to wear out faster than other rock shoes. We feel it is more precise on small edges than the similarly priced Evolv Defy. We have been impressed with the Flash, especially for the price. These are great for the gyms, sport climbing, and bouldering. This is a great first climbing shoe but we climb with it on El Cap and love it. We used to mostly use the Five Ten Moccasym as our comfort/gym/multi-pitch shoe. But we switched to the Flash because of how much performance it gives in an inexpensive package. If you want a similar shoe with laces, there is the Mad Rock Phoenix.