Resoling and beyond

[Sam]

points taken. thanks. have heard good things about vertical world. will check'em out!

[ShaolinWood]

Hi all, I'm based in the Cape and wondering if it's worth rather sending my shoes up to Joburg to get them resoled by Vertical World?
How is the quality of Rocksole nowadays?

I'm a bit worried about A: the time it will take posting up to Joburg, and B: the cost it will all add up to... and also the fact that I can't really send them back if the work looks dodgy... (Hopefully that will not be a factor)

I've never had shoes resoled before. Is it even worth it?

Thanks
Gerhard

[RyanKarate]

Vertical world resoled my LS miura’s and did an awesome job. Would use them again but unfortunately they took 8 weeks to resole them last year and were very unresponsive to any messages enquiring about how much longer they were going to take at the time. So be ready for a sit and wait game and have a back up pair of shoes to be safe.

[Baldrick]

On behalf of Chris and myself, the owners of Vertical World Resoles, we are very much still in business and growing.

To provide some insight into our timing and turnaround, our wonderful resole technician, OJ, take his well deserved annual leave during January of each year. This adds a few weeks onto our usual turnaround of 3-4 weeks, we apologise for this in advance and trust you can understand.

We have partnered with the MCSA and City Rock in Johannesburg to provide a secure drop-off/return service and hope to replicate this in the Mother City soon.
Please be assured that we are committed to providing this service to the greater climbing community because we are climbers too.

regards Nigel Bailes

[ShaolinWood]

Thanks for the reply Nigel,

I can understand that. I think expecting to wait maybe 5 weeks would be OK, but 8 weeks would be too much for me. I don't have a pair of backup shoes so I'll have to climb with my tennies for that time...mmm decisions.

The most important thing is getting quality work done. So if that means I'll have to gamble on the time then I'd rather do that.
Will be in touch.

Also have anyone tried using Durasole in Wynberg? durasole.co.za (they we're recommended by CityRock)
They're much more expensive than Vertical Wrld but postage taken into account..don't know. Quality of work will be the deciding factor.

Thanks

[Willem]

I would caution against using Vertical World. Their work is of high standard - when one is able to get shoes to them. Twice tried to send them shoes for resole last year. Both times the shoes were returned undelivered. Vertical World never picked the shoes up from Cityrock and ignored all my messages (waybills, reminders, pleas, etc).

[dannypinkas]

Gerhard, resoling is certainly worth it from both environmental and economic considerations. I used to resole shoes under 'Rock Frog' and between my wife and I we have had at least 5 very good resoles by Vertical World. I know some people would not consider climbing in resoled shoes, but am yet to meet a climber who has had a decent resole regret their decision. However, given that you only have one pair I would go for Durasole. They have been around for a long time and have produced some very good work. More importantly, you will be able to hold them to their time commitments by physically going to their premises.

Vertical World certainly do a good job but I have decided that there is now potential in this part of the world for more than one operator and am going to revive my old business in Waterval Boven under 'Boven Resoles'. It will take me a while to set up the operation to my satisfaction and a while longer to ensure that I can consistently produce quality resoles. Once in operation (3-4 months' time), though, I don't expect communication and time to be issues. Watch this space.

[ShaolinWood]

Thanks y'all

OK also spoke to the guys at Rocksole. They seem to be the cheapest and are right around the corner. They charge half of what Durasole is charging...
has anyone had any bad experiences with them lately?

[rasmus]

I've had two pairs of shoes resoled at Rocksole about 2 years ago. The soles started peeling off after 2-3 days of climbing. When I took them back, the guy said. "You also really walk on the edge alot."

They are nice and friendly, but know nothing about climbing. Unless there are new people doing the work there, I don't recommend using them. Unfortunately I can say the same thing about Vertical World, just the opposite, you could say. I tried sending shoes there and despite many messages, calls etc., they never picked up and I got nothing but a postal bill out of it. They are supposedly doing a great job, but their customer service and attitude is terrible. If you are fine with that, go with Veritcal World.

I've experimented with resoling myself and otherwise have gotten it done when abroad. It's really weird, but in other places you don't have to choose between being treated disrespectfully or getting what you are paying for...

[ShaolinWood]

Thanks Rasmus,

Feels like that's the basic story for almost every service industry in SA

OK seems like the guys at Durasole might be the way to go... although much more expensive than everyone else... they seem to still have a good rep. Well let me take a chance and I'll definitely report back

Thanks for all the input people!

[Brussel]

I've used durasole. They were expensive but did a good job.

[The Jimmy]

It will take me a while to set up the operation to my satisfaction and a while longer to ensure that I can consistently produce quality resoles. Once in operation (3-4 months' time), though, I don't expect communication and time to be issues. Watch this space.

Rockfrog were excellent in terms of both quality of work AND service (and price too ) and I had many happy resoles there.

Very happy to hear that you're reviving it Danny, all the best for that venture!

[AndrewV]

Last year I got so irritated waiting for vertical world (over 2 months) I just bought another pair of shoes from city rock jhb. For me it's quicker and easier than going through the frustration of waiting. Knowing my money goes yo a great organisation with outstanding staff is reason enough to simply buy new shoes. 4 pairs in 18 months (im fortunate enough to be able yo climb daily).

I was initially promised a turnaround time of 1 month - simply not good enough

[Old Smelly]

On the contrary there are literally hundreds of shoes being resoled by Vertical World on a regular basis in JHB with the customers being a bit slow to collect from what I have seen. I suspect that the order the shoes are received in and processed in may be a bit jumbled but the only reason I can guess for the slow processing would be the high demand. Still on quality I think that their resoles are good.

One of the issues is that the gym walls destroy resoles quite quickly - some would put that down to bad footwork but I do believe that in terms of quality and cost for what the shoes are being used for it is a good balance - no one really wants to use brand new technical shoes on climbing gym walls.

So I say keep up the good work!

[dannypinkas]

Finally, Boven Resoles is up and running. You can find all the details on the following link:

http://www.bovenresoles.org.za

We are still working on the site so feel free to contact me directly for additional information via whatsapp on Zero 84seven80311four

Danny

[Thermophage]

Awesome news. Would one have a choice of rubber?
And what are the chances that one's downturned shoes will stay downturned and not turn into winkle pickers like so often happens when other shoes have been resoled locally?

[dannypinkas]

Hi Cuan

At the moment I have 4,5mm Evolv Trax , 4mm Vibram soft rubber and 4mm Vibram XS Edge. So, there is a limited choice. I'd love to have stealth C4 but with Adidas taking over 5.10 it has proven very difficult. I should be getting some Ocun in the near future from City Rock and if there are any suppliers in the country who would like to supply me with alternatives I'd be keen to hear from them.

As for the downturn, I know how frustrating it is to receive perfectly rounded solutions so have been working on finding the answer. This is something which is still in development but I hope to have the solution before I run out of my experimental solutions - within the next 2 months.

[garvinj]

Gee Guys

Its been a long time. I'm happy to report that since my last post on this topic I haven't had any shoes resoled. In fact i've give shoes away just so I didn't feel forced into dealing with resoling.
If you have some time to burn go back and read some of this . Super funny drama.

But Danny if your back in the mix, I'll put my trust in you. Good luck and I'll drop my shoes when I'm next in Bowen. (Hopefully August)

Cheers

[Thermophage]

Hi Cuan

At the moment I have 4,5mm Evolv Trax , 4mm Vibram soft rubber and 4mm Vibram XS Edge. So, there is a limited choice. I'd love to have stealth C4 but with Adidas taking over 5.10 it has proven very difficult. I should be getting some Ocun in the near future from City Rock and if there are any suppliers in the country who would like to supply me with alternatives I'd be keen to hear from them.

As for the downturn, I know how frustrating it is to receive perfectly rounded solutions so have been working on finding the answer. This is something which is still in development but I hope to have the solution before I run out of my experimental solutions - within the next 2 months.

Thanks Danny,

Great news!
One thing I thought about recently is resoling ONLY the part of the rubber that's blown out (line the red in the image below). Sure the fitup to the old might be a mission, but surely just replacing that portion will go a LONG way to resolving the issue of the upturned toe?
I mean it would/should use less rubber in any case too.
Maybe people would chalk sketch on their shoes the portion they want replaced and you guys see whether that's possible when they arrive.
Perhaps it's a kak idea and you/someone has already investigated it but worthwhile mentioning it here.
Anyway, look forward to giving you guys a shout when I need resoles (likely at the end of bouldering season).

Cheers for now,
Cuan

[dannypinkas]

Cuan, are you looking for a job in rural Mpumalanga?

You are right that such a solution would cost less rubber and that it involves more labour (the most expensive component of the process) in integrating the rubber with the sole. Grinding wheels are not so flexible so your idea is a more delicate process involving attachments on drills etc. - something I would do over time on my own shoes, but not very commercially viable.
Later on, once I have read up on how to attach photos, I will post a couple of my experiments which are very similar in principle to your suggestion.

[Thermophage]

Hahahah Danny,

I might be. Geologist here so sure I could multitask.
Yeah figured it would require a little finesse.
But yeah, keep us up to date for sure. I would be very interested!

[dannypinkas]

Doesn't look like one can post PC attachments so I will PM you the photos, Cuan. If anyone else is interested send me a PM or whatsapp.

[Gustav]

Screenshot 2018-07-05 15.16.54.png (201.65 KiB) Viewed 11375 times

Hey Danny, it is not an easy thing on this ancient platform (sorry Justin) but you first have to compress the files to dwarf status

Email them to me and I'll do the compression or maybe I'll send you more beta on how to do it yourself?

[dannypinkas]

Thanks for the guidance, Gus. I think this should work? As you can see, pretty similar to what Cuan was suggesting. For the shoe on the right I joined 3 different rubber left-overs.

[garvinj]

Just got 5 pairs of shoes back from Danny. It's game on People, this man Know his stuff. The shoes look great!!! I tried on the one shoe that I thought was not really fixable when I sent it and it is great.

Thanks Danny