It's hard to listen to your friends teaching you how to gym climb when your feet feel scrunched worse than a ballerina's. Black Diamond's Momentum Climbing Shoe balances comfort with performance so you can learn how to climb comfortably. Most climbing shoes opt for leather or synthetic leather uppers to keep durable throughout your rocky adventures. Black Diamond, on the other hand, made this shoe's upper out of a unique knit that enhances breathability without hindering overall durability. This enhanced breathability also decreases the foul smells that standard leather climbing shoes excrete in your car, closet, or wherever you store your climbing shoes. Since this isn't a leather or synthetic leather climbing shoe, the Momentum shouldn't stretch as much as usual climbing shoes, and if this is your first pair of climbing shoes, you might want to consider getting this pair in your street shoe size even though your friends are telling you to size down. The NeoFriction rubber sole is also unique in that it's molded--as opposed to the usual cutting from one sheet of rubber--to the shoe in order to increase longevity and ensure traction on greasy, plastic footholds.