2019 Climbing Shoe Review: Butora Gomi

Fit

As with the rest of Butora’s line, size to your street-shoe size. One tester, who has wider feet, really filled out the shoe at this size, but noted that testers with narrower feet may want to come down a half size.

Specs

Downturned, asymmetrical shoe. Suede uppers; single Velcro closure; 3D molded Neo Fuse heel cup; no midsole; 4 mm Neo Fuse outsole.

Pros

Soft, sensitive, flexible shoe offers grippy smearing and top-of-the-class heel hooking and toe scumming. Conforming fit made the Gomi surprisingly comfortable for an aggressive shoe, also given how much rubber coverage there is; shoe was also light on the feet despite all the rubber, perhaps due to the split-sole design.

Cons

One tester felt edging performance suffered after a few sessions, with edging turning into smedging; however, our other tester gave them a 7 out of 10 on edging—it may be a fit issue.

Field Notes

Both testers noted remarkable toe-scumming and heel-hooking abilities, which will make the Gomi very suitable for gym climbing and steep sport and bouldering. “On Bob’s Bulge, a V6 compression problem that requires multiple right heel hooks and toe scums, the right heel stuck like glue while my left foot was edging reliably on tiny crystals,” said one tester, noting that previous attempts, in other shoes, had her feet popping. And raved our other tester, “They’re certainly among the best hooking/scumming shoes I’ve tried: a forefoot drowning in rubber with a soft-enough midsole [note: no midsole] to flex for toe hooks.” Both testers also praised the Gomi’s smearing capabilities, noting it flexed well with the foot to let the meat of the forefoot outsole contact the rock. Edging feedback was mixed, but the shoe did score solid upper-middling marks for jamming, helping it tick plenty of boxes as a performance all-arounder, which is how it’s billed. (Note, with the pink Gomi and pink Acro Comp, 10 percent of all proceeds in October will go to a national charity or research fund to benefit breast-cancer research.)

Available at

• Wide fit: hmhoutdoors.com
• Narrow fit: hmhoutdoors.com

See the rest of our 2019 Climbing Shoe Review.