Any preference on the two climbing shoe resolers under the directory? Would like to hear some comments from someone that has tried out the other resole company - not Rock Frog. Price wise, quality or time taken to finish the resoles.
Thanks any comments would be welcome.

Yeah i've used duracell in CT, they cost about R300, take 10 working days. But the quality, has its good and bad days.

I haven't tried everyone but in my humble opinion by far the best quality resoles I have experienced are from the Durban guys but will have to do some digging to find their details. Outstanding quality using excellent rubber.

You'd have to do a lot of digging, Dragon. Rowan stopped resoling at least 5 years ago. I honestly think that the guys at Rock Frog are now up to Rowan's standards, even better if you take precision performance into account. A couple of weeks ago Flex did the crux moves on Hack and Slay (a very technical 30/31 with minute footholds) in a pair of Rock Frog resoled (including rands) Evolvs.

I'm with Danny on this one - Hayden and Sheena at Rock Frog are surgeons when it comes to resoling. They have really taken it to a new level, and frankly i won't have my shoes resoled at any other resoler.

i had 3 prs of shoes resoled at Durasole end of last year. They were KAKK!
soles had the chamfer going the wrong way (i.e. splaying out instead of in),
glue peeling after not much use. I would not recommend these guys at all.
climbing shoes it seems require quite specialised attention and at least someone who understands how the shoe gets used.

_________________
Adam Roff

Thanks for the support! A bit of positive feedback is always greatly appreciated!

Miranda Muller
Rockfrog Resoles

There is a fabulous new resoler in Durban. The durbanites have been very impressed with the quality of his work. His turn around time is within a week and I believe the price is round about the R300 mark. Phone Robert on 0726391819.

Hey guys,

Echo the sentiments of Adam, altho more so for my Cirque Pro's than for my climbing shoes. I had a couple of pairs of Cirque's resoled with them. It took one hike for the glue on the toe cap to peel loose. The soles are also showing signs of detaching themselves from the main body of the shoe.

In an age when we should all be looking to reuse and not buy new, it is really disheartening to find kakky workmanship like this...and for what I consider to be a fairly grand price. Let's face it, if you waited for a sale at one of the main outdoor distributors, you could pick up a new pair of shoes for maybe 400 or so?

Is anyone prepared to honestly state what kind of margins resolers are making?

s

Rowan is back in business. he just bought some Evolv Trax rubber sheets from us.

Bit concerned about Rock Frogg's use of Mad Rock rubber? Anyone know anything about this product?

_________________
Billions of blue blistering barnacles!!!

So far the climber's who have had their shoes resoled with it have been happy. Its more sticky than Virbam but lasts a little longer than the C4. We have the dual-density soles for Mad Rock shoes.

Of course, if you are suspicious of Mad Rock rubber, let us know and we can still resole your shoes with the good ol' products too

Miranda Muller
Rockfrog Resoles

Hi,
Just got my pair of shoes back from Rocksole after 2 months.They look terrible(the Frankenstein of shoes!).But,the proof is in the pudding and the real test now will be if they last more than an hour on the rock and if they stick.Will keep you updated.
cheers

I have had a pair of boreal climbing shoes resoled at Durasole with vibram rubber and a pair of mad rock climbing shoes resoled with evolve rubber at Durasole and I am very happy with the job they did. Other climbers I know who have had their shoes resoled at Durasole as well, are also happy with the standard of their work.

I got 3 pairs of shoes back from Rocksole in 5 days. They look rather hideous and the workmanship is not great, but they do fit properly even though the rand had to be replaced too. I climbed with one of the pairs over the weekend and they performed well, but I suspect I may have to reattach the sole soon. I will update this after the shoes have had a chance to prove themselves either way.

I started Rock Frog because of the bad reputation that Rocksole had. Shortly after Durasole got in on the act and I've heard many positive reports about them. For you guys in the Cape they would definitely be my choice.
For Gautengers, if you have more than 1 pair, Rock Frog is still the answer. About a year ago Hayden was doing some of the best resoles ever witnessed in SA.
Durban seems to be sorting itself out.
The question is who will Dricus turn to - It never made sense how many shoes I was getting from him, even when taking into account the potential number of climbers in the Eastern Cape...

I sent one pair of Dricus' shoes with a whole bunch of others (5 pairs previously resoled very pooly by Frog) to Bug Sprouse in Durban. All I had to do was SMS my address. He sent his courier & they bagged them. That was Wednesday. Today he has SMSed me feed back on the progress. So far so good!

0726391819 For sweet service! Will keep you all posted.

He, he Danny! Good you asking, I guess it is because we got so many shoes hey. Hayden's resoling best witnessed ever in SA? Mmm...have to disagree on that. All of my pairs I sent to you for resoling still remains the best except for the Stingers I did first in UK. Hoping like Derek say that the new guy is doing a splendid job. I will be very reluctant to return to Rockfrog if that may be the case. Anyone got contact details for Durasole?

Adieu!

So here it goes! Just got my shoes back over the weekend from Bug Sprouse under "mentorship" og Rowan Winter. Look out folks! Here is a new kid on the block, this feels like new Boreal Zen's! Quality is great, no uneven rubber and a big round sole where the ball of your foot is and even the reranding looks awesome! Hoping to send my next few pairs also there.
Word is out, try him and give your response. I am pretty much impressed by the quality - it feels like Rowan Winter's, quality like Danny but a different guy on the scene.

True story! Bug Sprouse's resoles are the bomb, proper quality. Door to door service... all I had to do was SMS my address to his number. He sent his courier to collect, no need to even package the shoes. There were some delays, Bug kept me informed throughout.

His number 0726391819. Service & quality...the perfect combination.

If I may ask, how much does a resole cost at this new resoler? And reranding?

Not sure about rand repair, but Bug Sprouse charges R300 per pair plus shipping for resoles. I'd imagine that the rand toe cap is not too far from the typical price: R50 per pair.

I recently had my shoes resoled with Bugs. He did a great job, and returned my shoes 3 days later. This was a very different experience to my 3 months with rockfrog.

Bugs is running a very efficient service and will continue to get my support.

I'm rather sad I have to post this, but I have another bad review of Rock Frog.

I've had several shoes resoled by Rock Frog in the past and despite the increased number of bad posts about them and good reviews of Bug Sprouse I decided to be loyal and send several shoes back to Rock Frog for resoling.

This is the breakdown of the service I received.

Feb 17th. Overnighted my shoes
Feb 18th. Shoes confirmed received
Feb 19th. Received news "we will probably start with resoling them on Monday or so". i.e. 22 Feb
Mar 15th. Sent email to check how things were going. No response.
Mar 18th. Resent email to check how things were going.
Mar 23th. Received response. "We are hoping to have your shoes out either by the end of this week of early next week". i.e. 26th or 29th March.
Apr 1st. Sent email to check how things were going. No response.
Apr 6th. Resent email to check how things were going. No response.

Very unfortunate.

zb.

Unfortunately I have to do the same, I dropped off two pairs of shoes (mine and a friends) in September / October last year. I have followed up a number of times, waited patiently because of issues with rubber supplies, exams etc but still no shoes.... I am starting to think they have been lost.

@ zabullet

Please dude don't be unreasonable these guys are students. Remember also they are doing you a favour taking time out of there busy lives to do this. Most of all consider that once you get the shoes back you won't want to wear them anyway so what's the rush.

Where there's smoke there's fire. In this case probably the rubber on your shoes.

@ mark. I think you win the patience award.
Garvin
PS. I only waited 4 months. So hold on there your in for a ride.

That's a joke right? RIGHT? PLEASE tell me you're joking, because I'm not sure. Its a joke. Gotta be.

[I'm paying for a service. They're not doing me a favour.]



. Seriously. Don't become a comedian. Ever.

zb.

Your right I'm really bad at the hole sarcasm/comedy thing, but you will agree with me, there service is worse than my comedy, sentence construction and spelling put together. Hey!! If i can't be a comedian, do you think I could make it as a Climbing shoe resoler.

Good one garvinj.

But yes, why not try the resoling thing? I guess so many of us are gatvol re all this poor service.

Poor service in SA...makes me wanna cry sometimes.

We all should do our bit to stem that tide, hey?

Ha.ha. funny funny.

@ Mark - we have tried to contact you several times asking when you would like to pick your shoes up. It seems that we aren't the only people who are not good at replying to messages

@ zabullet - I have responded to your emails..