In reply to Dave Perry:
> Fruit boots??? WTF? Please!
This posting on A N Other forum explains the term quite well I think:
http://cascadeclimbers.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/1012618/Fruit_Boots
It is apparently also used by skateboarders as a derogatory term for inline skates:
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=fruit%20boots That usage has strong homophobic undertones, which is nice... I don't know how the term got picked up by the climbing community - whether it came pretty much fully formed (with associated non-PC baggage) from the sk8r world, or had a completely separate derivation.
If they're supposed to be "rock shoes for mixed" then the Mantas wouldn't seem to be a particularly good place to start. (And it seems a shame to b*gger up a perfectly good pair of Mantas.)