Maestro Mid review

The Maestro Mid jamming on desert sandstone.

The Maestro Mid jamming on desert sandstone.

A trad shoe that is far from traditional! The new Maestro Mid from SCARPA is a highly anticipated shoe that is designed for performance as well as all day comfort. The thing that has really set this shoe apart from others in the category is the out of the box softness. No this is not a super sensitive shoe that you will want to boulder in, but comparative to other crack shoes it is much softer. The softness yields to more sensitivity, which is very convenient in transitions to face climbing or just face climbing itself. The toe box, as you can expect from all SCARPA shoes is nice and wide allowing the forefoot to fan out a bit more, adding to the comfort of the shoe. The toe is precise and allows confident and comfortable edging while being able to feel it a bit more. Where I really had confidence with this shoe was transitions from jamming in cracks to standing on small face holds. Smearing in this shoe is very comfortable as well, being not as stiff allowed me to feel the rock a bit more and be confident in shifting my weight. This shoe jams just as well as any other shoe, putting it on this was a worry of mine, as the shoe was noticeably softer, but once in the crack it gave so much support and comfort that I immediately dismissed this issue. This shoe has an eco leather upper, which worried me at first, as it has a tendency to stretch, but the shoe broke quite nice in a timely manner and has not stretched since then. Being a mid shoe, the upper is higher in order to cover and protect the ankle while in cracks, I do wish they had made it a tad bit higher as it does not quite cover my ankle all the way. If I have one gripe about the shoe it is the heel. It functions adequately, nothing special about it, definitely not as precise as some of the other SCARPA models, which is what I am accustomed to with SCARPA. I have climbed in this shoe on granite, conglomerate, and sandstone of all types and it did amazing on all of them, but I found that it really kicked it into gear on southeastern sandstone. This shoe is the entire package, it allows precise movement while yielding supple comfort. It is equally at home as a high performance crack shoe and an all day comfort shoe. SCARPA really hit it out of the park with this one.


Edging oh so good on that sandstone!

Edging oh so good on that sandstone!

The Maestro mid smearing on alpine granite.

The Maestro mid smearing on alpine granite.