La Sportiva Miura - Women's Review

Likes
We love the La Sportiva Women's Miura. We have this shoe is two different sizes, a tighter fit for sport climbing and a larger fit for all day climbs. These shoes edge really well, especially right out of the box, and we feel they are very precise and sensitive in the toe, and become more so the longer you have them. We love the padding in the heel. It makes the shoe fit on a women's foot much better than the Men's La Sportiva Miura, as well as adding a great degree of comfort. We know a number of guys who have bought the Women's Miura because they like the padded heel so much.

Dislikes
Sometimes these shoes bunch a little at the toe, which causes a painful crease above the toe knuckles. These shoes are a bit downturned, so it leaves more volume for your toes to bunch in the front, if you select a bigger size where your toes are not as curled, this might be when the bunching occurs. We have heard a few people complain of this happening with Miuras, We noticed it a little on our bigger pair, but it wasn't a deal breaker for me.

Best Application
These shoes shine when it comes to technical climbing. Great at edging, sticky enough for good smearing, and sensitive enough for precise footwork, they excel at climbs of a harder grade. We have used a larger pair of these shoes for crack climbing, but we would suggest less down-turned shoe such as the Mythos or the Scarpa Thunder if lots of toe-jamming is required.

Testing Stories
These shoes are lined, so they won't stretch very much. The first pair we bought for myself, we got pretty small because we expected them to stretch, but they hardly stretched at all. (Now weI have a reeallly tight pair for when we want to send…) When selecting a size we would go for tight yet comfortable, and not too small.

Value
These shoes are expensive. They are a higher end shoe made in Italy, and that drives the price up. However, they are an amazing shoe with high performance, so we would say they are worth it. One of our friends has a concept he calls “Cents per Send,” meaning even if you have to spend a lot of money on climbing shoes, if they help you climb better, then you are essentially earning your money back on every climb where you succeed. That philosophy applies here, because we am more than willing to spend a little more on a shoe that we will love.

Other Versions
There is a Velcro version called the La Sportiva Miura VS - Women's and a men's Velcro version called the La Sportiva Miura VS. However, the velcro versions have a very different shape then these. There is also a Men's version of this shoe called the La Sportiva Miura.