Five-ten good buddy

Backblip because mood

A few days ago when I was at the supermarket on Madame Fidra I mentioned the massive, rubbery shoes I was wearing.  These are they.  I was given them for free several years ago by someone in my friend Alice's family who found them too small (!).  I promptly researched like mad to find out what model they were, then not long after, I completely forgot everything I had learned.

I had to research like mad all over again, and I only came up with the answer when I finally tried scouring eBay.  These are Five Ten's then-limited edition 'Diddie Schneider Enduro' trailbuilding shoes.  Schneider started with the early days of BMX, later building BMX tracks before he moved to mountain bike racing, and later again he started building mountain bike trails.  He has a concept called 'bike parks', where variety of terrain and skill is important for enjoyment for everyone.   And when you're busy building trails, you need sturdy footwear, which is why these shoes have super grippy soles and ankle protection, they are impact-proof with steel toecaps, they're waterproof and heck, the panel that covers the laces is apparently chainsaw-proof, although I don't think I'll test that!

And why "Five Ten"?  Their signature is the really tacky rubber of the soles, which Charles Cole invented in the 1980s for making better a rock climbing shoe after he slipped and nearly fell.  Rock climbs are graded by difficulty using the Yosemite Decimal System, which goes from class 1 to class 5.  A nice easy running trail would be class 1.  Grade 5.10 is basically where all the really difficult climbs start; the route up the vertiginous El Capitan for example is 5.13a which is, like, really really difficult!