A quick outline of my favorite pair of climbing shoes, not too deep or anything just a good pair of shoes. More specifically these are the Evolv Shamans but that doesn’t really matter too much, aside from the fact that I’ve always liked the fit and style of the shoe. For the actual drawing itself, this was the first time I’ve ever attempted anything like this, digital art on a computer drawn with a mouse is a completely foreign media to me so I wanted to keep it simple and just go with outlines and very simple shapes. However, that didn’t stop me from trying to use this as a sort of tolerance piece for the laser cutter as I’m curious to see how it handles the slimmer segments that require higher precision, particularly in the loop cut and where some of the lines meet/intersect. When approaching a new medium like this I like to test the water a little by doing something simple so I have a solid base to start from in case nothing works and I have to start again. There’s also lots of room to improve and iterate on in this piece, particularly the addition of texture and a delineation between the materials but that’ll have to wait.

For the people who are wondering why climbing shoes look so funny, they’re not meant to be comfortable at all, to the contrary, they are designed to squeeze your foot to a point so you have better accuracy and grip on very small foot holds. Additionally, this being a competition-style climbing shoe the toe itself is turned down slightly (commonly called an aggressive shoe) which increases precision and accuracy when placing your foot (it also makes them far more painful to wear). The weird little hump above the toe is an extra pad of rubber placed above the toe to allow for toe hooking and other advanced moves.