On paper, perhaps the Veloce Lace shouldn't work, says Tim Hill; and yet it really does. This new wave super-soft beginner-to-intermediate indoor shoe has torn up the rule book.

Over the last decade the climbing wall scene has exploded, and many traditional rules of climbing have been booted out of the window. In yesteryear people would serve apprenticeships outdoors, working their way slowly up through the grades. Of course you can still do this, and if that's your preference then a comfy-yet-supportive 'traditional' rock shoe is probably the one to go for. But modern climbing walls present people with a much more gymnastic alternative. Standards have soared, and the contemporary beginner to intermediate indoor climber requires something much more technical on their feet than they might once have. Previously this would probably have meant a massively uncomfortable high performance model, but in the Veloce Lace you get a shoe that's sensitive and forgiving, ideal for beginners through to intermediate climbers, and best of all fun - not painful - to climb in.

There is no question Scarpa has been one of the key brands at the forefront of this movement, stepping away from tradition and creating climbing shoes that perform in a modern indoor environment.

The Veloce Lace is soft - and I mean really soft. It has a 1mm midsole and is based around a high-tension system designed to give the shoe structure by pushing your foot forward into the toe box. These features sound like they shouldn't be associated with a comfortable beginner / intermediate shoe but here they are, and they work!

The key to the success of the Veloce is that Scarpa has focused on a single aspect of climbing: 'having fun in a climbing wall'. 

Fit

The Veloce comes in both a lace and velcro option, each in either a men's or a women's/lower volume fit. The velcro version has been about for a bit, with the new lace (or L) being the latest model to hit the shelves.

The Veloce lace is a micro fiber-constructed shoe, and this gives them a soft, velvety feel. This combined with a wider, roomier toe box is just plain pleasant, particularly if you're someone like me who wears more performance-based shoes on a regular basis. To be honest they're so nice to put on that I'm now struggling to start any of my weekly winter wall sessions in anything but the Veloce.

It's a medium to wider fitting shoe, but the laces of the Veloce L do give a lot of front-end adjustment. They are medium volume, and give your foot room to spread comfortably. Having said that I do think the Veloce needs to be a snug fit for all the elements within the shoe (such as the DTS - tensioning systems) to work properly, so you should fit them making sure there's no dead space. When I first got these shoes the snug but comfortable fit really stood out as something different. Worlds apart from the close fit of a performance shoe that pushes, grips and grabs your feet, the Veloce moulds to your foot shape and fits like a sock. Think snug and comfy out of the box. Don't go cramming your feet in thinking "they are soft, they must fit super tight!"

Sole

The sole is made from S-72 rubber, Scarpa's own compound, and definitely at the stickier end of the spectrum. It might not be the most durable over a long period of time due to its soft stick structure but when it comes to walking across volumes or smearing on big rounded holds its performance is well above average. On several occasions I've smeared on volumes and been totally surprised that Veloces have stuck it and I've not skidded off, shinning myself in the process.

Due to the soft nature of the Veloce you'd expect this shoe to be all about smearing, not about edging, and you'd be correct. It's not surprising that trying to stand on small mirco edges is not its strongest asset. But the S-72 rubber is so sticky that it does in fact allow you to smedge (smear/edge) smaller footholds than you might at first think possible.

There isn't much of a traditional shoe structure within the Veloce but the S-72 rubber is backed with a 1mm midsole that is not designed to stiffen but just to give some form of anchor for the soft sole rubber.

Upper

When it comes to the top of the shoe, the toebox is covered in a single piece of M50 rand rubber. This is the same sticky rand rubber that is used on some of the top-end Scarpa performance shoes like the Drago. Not only are there obvious benefits of having sticky rubber when it comes to toe hooking, or using the top of the shoe while climbing, but having soft flexible rubber on both the top and the bottom of the shoe helps make it so comfy. In a top-end performance shoe manufacturers generally want the performance from softer compound rubbers but are trying to design other features within the shoe to stop these rubbers from stretching and deforming. When it comes to the Veloce, Scarpa has turned this concept on its head, allowing the soft sticky rubbers to move and stretch with your foot. This is one of the key reasons this shoe is so comfy and forgiving.

The top of the Veloce Lace features a low profile and well finished lacing system. This has been well thought out and extra effort has been made to ensure lacing eyelets don't interfere when toe hooking or wrapping the top side of your shoe around something like an arete. On the outside edge of the shoe, the lacing eyelets are created out of a low profile, single piece lamination. On the inside of the shoe, the first three eyelets are almost tucked down against the tongue to make this surface as clean as possible - a nice detail.

The tongue of the Veloce is nicely padded with a small amount of tough material stitched under the laces to deal with abrasion that may be caused by the laces rubbing. Even the laces themselves have a small amount of stretch, to help contribute towards that feeling of comfort performance.

How does it work in use?

You can probably tell by this point that the Veloce Lace gets a big thumbs up from me when it comes to comfort and how Scarpa has applied modern shoe tech to achieve this, but what does all this mean when it comes to actually going climbing?

Phrases such as 'performance but with comfort' have been used a lot over the years by almost every climbing shoe brand out there, but the Veloce Lace is more 'Comort with Performance' because the first thought you have when putting them on is "these are really comfortable"; their performance then comes as a nice surprise. It's a bonus, like when you crack open an egg and get a double-yolker.

In a modern climbing wall environment these shoes will perform really well from the easiest bouldering circuits up to about top end font 6s (that's my guess for most people, obviously Aidan Roberts could probably climb 8B in them). They are pleasantly forgiving shoes, you can smack your foot or try smearing on a volume five times in a row and not feel like you need to take your shoe off and go for a Cappuccino. These shoes allow you to have more time climbing, and perform well enough to keep you improving through those low to mid-grade problems. Once you're climbing font 8s you'd probably still want a pair to do easy circuits with the youth squad that you're now coaching for the next Olympic selection.

Despite being soft, the architecture of these shoes is very good. The Veloce uses Scapa's DTS-Tension system, which to the everyday climber means the shoe does a good job of focusing power into the big toe, even with the toe box profile being quite square and open. At the other end of the shoe the heel is well-shaped and also covered in sticky rubber. The refinement here is again something you might expect to see on a more performance shoe, but it's applied well and works to support the general performance of the Veloce.

There is no doubt this shoe has limits, pushing into font 7s that aren't on big macro holds becomes tricky due to the lack of edging power and midsole (again, this is me being an average climber that can't half crimp +200% body weight). It's also worth noting the Veloce really is focused on indoor use. It will do the job outside on less edgy rock types such grit or sandstone; but the lack of midsole and edging does mean it doesn't have the more rounded performance that may be needed for a day out bouldering on lots of different styles of climb. I do think if you kept a pair in your bag, and lets face it most of us have a few pairs of shoes in our bag, they would work well on specific problems and in certain situations.

When I first started climbing in the Veloce Lace it took me a session to get used to the soft and sticky feel of the shoe, as I tend to wear performance shoes that have more of a midsole and a narrower toe box; but after that I've not looked back. For midweek bouldering wall circuits with friends they are a joy to wear. The lacing is easy to adjust and can be tightened to squeeze a bit of 'last go' performance, the fit is new school and modern, but most of all they are a fun shoe to climb in! They're not foot-crippling like a typical high performance shoe, but neither are they supportive and a bit imprecise, in the manner of a comfort-oriented outdoor-focused model; the Veloce Lace are something a bit different.

Summary

The Scarpa Veloce Lace is a total rebellion against the norm. Going on the specs alone, it shouldn't work for the beginner-to-intermediate climbers that it's aimed at; and yet it does, very well. The key to this shoe's great performance and comfort is that it is designed to do one job well, that job being 'mid-range indoor performance'. This will make it appealing to a lot of climbers, whether you're a seasoned climber looking for a pair of shoes to get you through those high mileage sessions at the wall in comfort, or whether you've been climbing for only six months and want a first pair of performance shoes that aren't going to turn your feet into pits of pain.