The opposing velcro closure system gave the shoe a secure feel around the foot although obviously the level of adjustability and tweaking is not on a par with that of a lace-up. The heel fits perfectly too (which is usually an issue for me) and provided secure hooking whether it was behind a thin flake or a sloping shelf. However, I think that I would probably drop down an extra size if I wanted a shoe for my hardest climbs. The pair that I tested were snug but not super tight and provided a good balance between technical performance and all day comfort. And once I got over the initial "newness" of the rubber they performed well pretty much instantly. It's not often I put a shoe on and think "bloody hell, that feels good!" But this was definitely one. The first thing I noticed when I put the Katanas on was the glove-like fit. So how have they performed? The Katana in practice They've been poked in pockets, edged on edges and squeaked onto smears. I've used them on overhangs, cracks, slabs, walls, arêtes and grooves.
Testing grounds have ranged from my local "woody" to the leading walls of Stockport and Kendal and from the gritstone edges of West Yorkshire to the sublime Fontainebleau sandstone. I have used the Katana regularly over the last couple of months. Add in the fact that the shoe has been finished off with a 4mm "Vibram XS Grip" rubber sole and it really should perform with blade-like precision.
La Sportiva have actually added a special midsole to this shoe which has a prehensile (which literally means "capable of grasping") area under the toe and this is supposed to increase both its edging capability and sensitivity. It is usually a foot-shaped piece of plastic and generally rock shoes fall into 2 categories: they are either "slip-lasted" or "board-lasted." As I said, the former is supposed to provide greater sensitivity and flexibility whilst the latter is intended to be stiffer and more supportive. For those who don't know, the "last" is the general foot shape around which a rock shoe (or any other shoe for that matter) is built. It is asymmetric but not radical so should offer a good balance between comfort and performance (the more asymmetric a shoe is, the closer it is to the shape of an actual foot.) The shoe is built upon a "slip-last" which is intended to give it greater sensitivity and flexibility. It is a medium fitting technical shoe so it should appeal to a wide range of foot shapes.
It features an opposing velcro closure system, an upper constructed from a mixture of suede leather and lorica (a man-made material which shares many of the characteristics of leather) and an internal synthetic lining which is designed to minimise stretch. The Katana is a rock shoe aimed at the all-round market, from bouldering and training to mountain trad. So, when opportunity arose to test La Sportiva's Katana, a shoe dubbed as being "ideal for multi-purpose use" I was very interested to see how it would fair. The other thing is that I've seldom found one shoe that does every job well. After all, our feet are unique to ourselves. The fit is usually unsatisfactory, maybe a bit too radical or just plain excruciating but that's not to say that they would be the same for somebody else. However the reality is that they never do.
#Katana velcro full
Simply, if it doesn't fit properly then it won't perform well (or at least it won't perform to its full potential.) Over the years I've tried many different shoes from many different brands, usually in the hope that the next super-duper banana boot is going to turn me into some kind of honed machine. For me the fit of a rock shoe is crucial to it's success.
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