evolv  Phantom Pro Climbing Shoes - Men's

Just had my first session in these. Right of the box they are the most comfortable shoe I have owned. My street shoe is 10.5 and I ordered a size 11. Extremely powerful and sensitive on the tiny chips. The new rubber is soft and sticky. I felt very secure on the steeps and slabs.

Got a set of these about a month ago, toe box is great heel seems a bit big. Amazingly sticky in holds, toe hooks seem effortless now definitely a massive upgrade from the to Kronos.

I'm long time Scarpa Soft Line user, I always try another brand / model and then go back to Furia S, Chimera, Drago LV for outdoors and commercial sets or Furia Air for Moonboard. I also had OG Phantoms regular. Sizing: I decided to go for Phantoms Pro LV in same size that I had for OG Phantoms (41). For reference I use Furia S, Drago LV in size 39.5, Chimera (black/blue) and Furia Air 39. La Sportiva Mandala, Mantra 39. PProLV gives different feeling - more rigid and supportive and seem to be bulky on feet compared to soft line Scarpas. My street shoe size is 41.5-42. PProLV fits my feet very well and bottom feels like glued to the feet - mainly part between heel and middle of foot moves for some models and this is not the case here. Feeling is very comfortable - I was even thinking about downsizing another 1/2 EU down but probably heel will be then too shallow and also toes will push the rand outside of sole. So happy with size 41. General use: for me it's shoe for outdoor. So far I tried it on Moonboard and outdoors. It has rigid full midsole that makes it insensitive on plastic. On small features outdoors helps. Toe hook patch - much better than OG Phantoms. It's softer - toe hooks are amazing. Still solution that Scarpa uses soft line - combining toe patch with rand - is a bit better. Heel - better than Scarpa and La Sportiva and also than OG Phantoms. Overall the top of the shoe is softer and has higher volume than the original but there is midsole that makes it stiffer and less sensitive, the rubber is noticably softer than SAS Trax and Vibram XS Grip2. I rarely do slabs or vertical climbing outdoors where the soft rubber can be limiting, but anyway intended uses of PPro is overhang. At the moment it seems that I will keep them in my quiver next to Scarpa Soft line, that means it's very good shoe from my perspective.

This shoe tries to be a mix of just about everything. It has enough support at the edge of the shoe to be able to stand on small holds. It is soft enough rubber to smear and conform to whatever it touches. It has a large toe hooking patch. Whether intentional or not the spine of the heel rubber can almost act as a Madrock like cheater ledge. As far as sizing I’d say it runs similarly to the regular phantoms however they fit a little different. The toe box seems wider or at least is soft enough to be more accommodating. The heel is ever so slightly wider and deeper than the standard phantom. I have a very slender and shallow heel shape and it still fits me fine. I actually prefer the way this heel fits over the standard phantom and I loved the standard phantom heel. Now the things that aren’t as good. Three things come to mind thus far. The price is the first one. It’s expensive! There is also tons of tech and R&D that has gone into this shoe. I can almost validate the price because this shoe was leaked well over a year ago and has since been continuously updated since. But it was the main turn off for why I didn’t pre order. It is the most expensive shoe I think you can buy that isn’t a limited edition shoe. And most of those are silly. The second thing is for me I’m not a huge fan of the way toe hooks feel so far. There is a ton of rubber there to it’s easy to make contact with rubber. For some reason doesn’t feel as sticky but it is softer than what’s on the bottom of the shoe. Your mileage may vary on this one. Lastly, because it is a shoe that is a softer construction I worry about long term durability. I haven’t had them long enough to speak 100% to that (I climb about 15 hours a week and I’ve had them for about a month), however so far they have been fairing well. They have kept their downturn well. They still feel well tensioned and the rubber hasn’t worn away crazy fast or delaminated. Overall, this shoe does everything well and some things great. I would recommend the show to people that want essentially a “quiver killer” that primarily climbs overhung routes. Shape of foot small to medium heel, average volume mid foot because of the adjustability of the closure you can essentially make it whatever you need, and medium to wide toe box. TL;DR Slightly softer/more sensitive and more accommodating than the regular phantom. Keeps edging power. Fits a wider toe box with a slender heel pretty true to street size (I downsized 1 full size). Wouldn’t be at home on a slab climb but otherwise a fantastic option. It’s a softer Scarpa Instinct VSR/VSR LV with a better toe hooking patch and closure adjustability. Downside is that it’s super expensive.