La Sportiva Katana Lace - Women's Review

With high scores around the board, the women's Katana Lace is a great new addition to the La Sportiva line. This shoe climbs extremely well and fits like a glove. The new split midsole feature gives it a bit more flex for technical smearing and edging while remaining comfortable for all-day wear.

Performance Comparison

Comfort

A high-performing shoe doesn't have to come at the cost of sore feet. Although the Katana Lace has a slightly downturned shape, they are surprisingly comfortable for all-day wear. The laces make them highly adjustable depending on your specific needs, and they're easy to get on and off while hanging at the belay. The extra padded tongue cushions the top of your feet and provides a bit of protection when climbing wider cracks.

The Katana Lace is relatively stiff, which gives your foot arch support for pitch after pitch of demanding climbing. The women's version has a noticeably different fit than the men's version (which was the only version available for a long time). The women's Katana is much more narrow in both the heel and the toe box, making sizing the shoe imperative for a comfortable fit. If sized correctly – and you're willing to make a small sacrifice in comfort for high performance on techy terrain – these are a great choice for your next multi-pitch outing.

Smearing

Stiffer shoes are generally less sensitive and don't flex or smear as well as softer ones, making it hard to feel what's underfoot. La Sportiva designed the women's Katana Lace with a split midsole, giving them more smearing capabilities than the previously available men's version. Even though they are still in the middle of the road in terms of rigidity, this design gives your foot more flexibility while standing on small holds and allows you to feel what you are standing on.

Although you won't get the same sensitivity and flexibility as a super soft shoe, the Katana Lace provides the perfect balance between sensitivity, smearing, and support for all-day wear. Especially after a couple of uses, the Katanas break in quite nicely and allow your toes to feel the footholds. For years, the men's Katana Lace has been a fan favorite, and the women's specific design is bound to follow suit.

Edging

The 4mm Vibram XS Edge is some of the stickiest rubber around, and we feel secure on the smallest dime edge with these on our feet. Since the Katana Lace has a moderately stiff midsole, it gives you spectacular edging power if the shoe is sized right. The Katana has a 1.1mm full-length LaspoFlex with a P3 midsole, allowing the weight of your body to transfer toward the toe. Its slight asymmetrical shape allows you to toe in on holds like never before. That, combined with the sticky rubber, makes the Katana a powerhouse right out of the box.

As with any climbing shoe, sizing correctly is key to getting the best performance out of the product, and the Katana Lace is no different. The looser the shoe, the worse it will perform while edging. That said, this has the capability to be one of the best edging shoes out there.

Pulling

Typically, shoes that perform well when crack climbing will lag behind in this metric, but that's not the case for the Katana Lace. The narrow, more pointed toe box lends itself well to pulling onto edges and pockets, and the shoe's slight downturn allows your foot to sink into small holes.

The Katana Lace performed super well while pulling with both heel and toe. The heel on the women's version is noticeably narrower, which made for better heel hooks by locking your foot in without all that extra rubber of the older men's version. This, combined with a moderately stiff P3 midsole, brings your weight towards the forefront and allows you to toe in on holds with relative ease.

Crack Climbing

When it comes to difficult crack climbing, the Katana Lace is our new favorite. With its narrower, asymmetrical design, the Katana is well suited for jamming in tight corners. This slightly slimmer profile of the toe allows maximum contact between rock and rubber, which is a key component for sending thin cracks. A rounder shoe will be more comfortable while shoved deep in hand cracks, but it will not give you the same performance on your more difficult projects.

The Katana Lace has a semi-stiff midsole, which supports the foot's arch while twisting into cracks. The shoe's leather uppers do a good job of protecting your feet from endless hand crack jamming, but they will begin to show wear over time. Other crack climbing-specific shoes are designed to take more of a beating in wider cracks, but we feel their more rounded design limits their performance in slim cracks. With little ankle coverage, the Katana is not the shoe to take on your next Indian Creek off-width tour, but it's the perfect choice for thin and technical cracks.

Should You Buy the Women's Katana Lace?

The Katana Lace is an excellent option for intermediate- to advanced-level climbers seeking a female-specific fit. This shoe will give you the support you need for climbing pitch after pitch of difficult crack or face climbing and is relatively comfortable enough for all-day wear. Its versatile design performed well in almost all metrics, and we especially love it for multi-pitches and crack climbing. For off-width climbing or high-end bouldering, we might suggest something a bit more specialized. But for a general jack-of-all-trades shoe, it's hard to find anything better than the Katana Lace.

What Other Climbing Shoes Should You Consider?