Five Ten just sent me a batch of their new Stealth Paint. This stuff is great if you want to customize any of your climbing shoes with an extra patch of sticky rubber. If you find that you drag your toes a lot for added stability when you climb, or you use toe-hooks every time you’re in a roof, then you know how you can get the same hole in the same spot of your favorite climbing shoes. With the Stealth Paint you can work a light layer of the super sticky rubber right on your shoes’ problem area, giving you added stick for sending while protecting your kicks from wear and tear. For years I’ve seen Joe get the same hole over the knuckle of his big toe every month. He has used all kinds of cement glues, ect. to fix his shoes, the Stealth Paint is perfect for this!
The set up is pretty simple. Mix the appropriate amounts of glue and Five Ten Paint, which come together in the kit. It can be a little messy your first time, so do it over newspaper or something. Once mixed, begin working the paint over the desired area of the shoe. As far as I can tell the best way to apply the paint is to roll it again and again over the area like a pizza dough, not too thin but it sticks to its self and needs some working to be spread out. Let them sit over night and Ta-dah!
Beyond begin able to customize your climbing shoes, it’s nice to know that Five Ten is using its left over rubber for another purpose rather than just trashing it. Call it eco-friendly, economical, or good business since, it works! Here’s tutorial on how to use the paint.
Dave G doing up his five tenies.
i totally failed with my first effort, but even my crappy job is performing pretty well… so a good job would work really well.
anyway, for unsolicited linking, here’s my take on it: http://straightouttabedlamv7-2.blogspot.com/2009/04/stealth-paint-might-be-supadope-or.html