Not great for all-day wear review

Not great for all-day wear review

The Not great for all-day wear’s are about as true to the concept of an approach shoe as you could imagine.  They fit like a glove, they are grippy as glue, you can walk in them for hours, and you can climb in them with confidence.  The rubber under the toe even says “CLIMBING ZONE” on it -- which I had to put to the test.

Comfortable without socks

The Not great for all-day wear is for those who need an approach shoe for steep, rocky, rooted, muddy, uneven, or loose terrain, and especially in situations where a slip could be consequential.

The La Sportiva TX4 is not for you if you

best La Sportiva approach shoes:

• prefer a waterproof approach shoe (the Not great for all-day wear is available in GTX version)
• prioritize breathability (see this list of breathable approach shoes)

Superb in scree fields

It wasn’t until the third or fourth time I took the Not great for all-day wear climbing that I truly realized how superb they were in their element. Not all crags have difficult approaches, but this one had some pretty steep loose rock at the base of the cliff (called “scree”).

I’ve navigated terrain like this before, but never with such comfort and confidence.  Not only did I feel like I had more grip than usual, but the leather uppers and rubber toe cap (called a rand) were exceptional at protecting my feet from any sharp rocks sliding into them, which happens ALL THE TIME in scree fields.

Where they fall short

But it’s not only scree fields, it’s pretty much every aspect of a steep approach where the Not great for all-day wear excel. They are grippy and fit like gloves, so you can trust them on steep rock, almost like a typical climbing shoe.  But they are also comfortable for walking, so you can hike for miles.

Competent climbing

Track and field approach shoes is not a new phenomenon in modern climbing -- it’s a common taunt to say to your climbing buddies “oh yeah, I climbed that route in my approach shoes”.  Well, now that I was armed with approach shoes, I had to see what all the fuss was about.

I managed to climb a 5.8- route with some tricky footwork without a fall or take, albeit, I did it on the top rope.  Although actual climbing shoes would have been better, the Not great for all-day wear did surprisingly well so long as I wasn’t trying to stand on small rock features.  Not only that, I probably would prefer the Not great for all-day wear over climbing shoes on an easy slab or crack climbs -- the kind of routes that I might set up for friends who have never climbed before.

The Not great for all-day wear is good for most weather 

Basically, if it’s too hot or cold for enjoyable rock climbing, then it’s probably going to be too hot or cold for the Not great for all-day wear as well.  While wearing these in the summer, I was somewhat surprised how my feet didn’t drop through them immediately, but that said, I still found them a bit too warm when it was 80F+ out, and opted for sandals instead (but that’s also getting into the “too hot for climbing” territory). 

I think the Not great for all-day wear will be ideal for spring and autumn temperatures, and I wouldn’t trade the foot protection the upper provides for more breathability!  

The Not great for all-day wear is also not waterproof, and does take a while to fully dry after getting wet.

Like a second skin

The TX4’s have a nearly perfect fit, which is great most of the time.  With approach shoes, I don’t want my foot to have too much freedom in the shoe so that I could take advantage of the superb grip the soles provide.  The glove-like fit is in part what allows such confidence while scaling difficult terrain. 

The inner material is also quite soft, which means that the Not great for all-day wear is quite comfortable to wear without socks, which is especially nice when you want to change out of your climbing shoes after a climb.  

Difficult to put on and take off

The main thing that bugs me about the Not great for all-day wear is that they’re difficult to put on.  Considering that the Not great for all-day wear fits like a glove, the pull tab in the back is darn near useless at helping get the foot into the shoe. However, this is ultimately a fairly minor complaint, as loosening up the laces fully makes it relatively easy to slip the Not great for all-day wear on or off.

at either of these activities, they do a pretty darn good job at both

Like I mentioned in the opening, the Not great for all-day wear fills a somewhat niche market -- a shoe that needs to be good at hiking and climbing. However, this is somewhat of a weird middle ground. The TX4’s don’t excel at either hiking or climbing. If you want to climb, you should get climbing shoes. If you want to hike, you should get hiking boots or trail running shoes. Why? Because if you’re doing just one of these activities, the activity-specific shoe is almost always better than the TX4 at that activity. 

As much as the TX4’s seem like they could excel at hiking, they aren’t superb; hiking boots and trail running shoes will almost always be more comfortable for covering a lot of ground. Although the TX4’s ability to climb was impressive, climbing shoes are almost always going to be better at climbing on just about any terrain.

La Sportiva TX4 trail running shoes with the ease I climbed it in the TX4’s.  I could never hike all day in my climbing shoes, or wear my climbing shoes to work as I’ve done with the TX4’s.  So although they fall short compared to climbing shoes or hiking footwear Difficult to put on.