The answer is the worst kind: it depends. The main takeaway here is that when you resole your climbing shoes, you are breaking them down and putting them back together. This means that every time you resole your shoes, you are reducing the structural integrity of the shoes. This is why a pair of shoes can only endure two, max three, resoles. At a certain point, the base of climbing shoes can no longer hold up.

Take note of how long it took for your new shoes to reach the point of needing a resole. A resole will add life to a shoe, but likely not the same amount of life it’s already lived. If you start to see peeling or delamination from your resole and not much time has passed since repair, please reach out to us and we’ll happily do a touch up. However, if a month or more has passed, ask yourself a couple of questions. Is the delamination purely an aesthetic issue? Is the delamination affecting the way you climb? You want to avoid unnecessarily breaking the shoe again for a non-issue.

At the end of the day, there is no rule of thumb for how long a resole should last. Sarah works in footwear at REI, and she advises customers that running shoes should last around 350-500 miles. But there are caveats that can change that range drastically. What kind of terrain are you running on? How much do you weigh? What does your running gait look like? All of these factors can change the longevity of the shoes. The same goes for rock shoes. Are you climbing mostly at the gym or crag? What kind of rock are you climbing on outside? How much do you weigh? How often are you climbing? What does your climbing footwork/technique look like? We are always happy to fix a resole failure, but please keep these questions in mind before sounding the alarm.