REASONS TO BUY
Affordable
Great for bouldering
Premium feel
REASONS TO AVOID
Less sensitive
Poor at edging
Ocun Bullit Review
This is more than just a great shoe for the price; it's actually a great shoe, especially for bouldering
You may not have heard of Ocun, but the Bullit should be on the radar of any budget-conscious climber.
Credit: Dom Rickicki
By Dom Rickicki ⋅ Review Editor ⋅ November 24, 2025
RELATED: The Best Climbing Shoes for Men
Our Verdict
After a day of testing mid-priced climbing shoes, we had to get online and double-check that the price of the Ocun Bullit wasn't a sale. Turns out it actually is that affordable, while performing like a much more expensive shoe. For bouldering, whether outdoors or in the gym, the Bullit offered a premium feel and performance that we didn't find in other shoes at this price point. It features much more comfortable materials, offers better sensitivity, and has much grippier rubber. We felt quite confident pressing into volumes, heel hooking, and toe hooking with the Bullit – other affordable shoes simply felt clog-like in comparison. While we don't feel this shoe necessarily outperforms the pricier competition, it keeps up. You may not be familiar with the Ocun brand, but the Bullit is well worth your consideration.
Our Analysis and Test Results
The Ocun Bullit is the all-around gym and bouldering shoe from a brand based out of the Czech Republic. New to our test, we were impressed by the Bullit's premium feel and performance for a price that is quite a bit lower than our premium award winners. Notably, the Bullit stands up well to premium-priced shoes in terms of comfort, smearing, and pulling. The shoe doesn't necessarily outperform the top-of-the-line offerings, but it keeps up, and most importantly, offers a lower barrier to entry.
The Bullit is particularly well-designed for bouldering, whether outside or in the gym.
Credit: Dom Rickicki
Comfort
We were impressed by the comfort of the Bullit straight out of the box. It has a soft and supple upper that molds to your foot and feels very sock-like. The toe box is generous – it isn't baggy by any means, but it doesn't painfully compress your toes, which is especially nice for climbers with wider feet. The toe angle is a bit high, and the shape is fairly asymmetric, but we found it more comfortable than other highly asymmetric shoes.
Sizing this shoe tightly, so your toes are curled, will likely give you the best fit and prevent air gaps. The single power strap keeps things snug, but it also has an extra strap that seems meant to add tension over the toes – we never found a way to pull tension on that extra strap. Compared to other European brands, which often require downsizing, Ocun's fit closer to street shoe size. We sized the Bullit this way, and it offered a performance fit perfect for bouldering, but depending on how you size your street shoes, results may vary.
This shoe has an aggressive asymmetric shape, but the soft upper material helps it conform to your foot comfortably.
Smearing
The Ocun Bullit uses their 4 mm CAT Rubber 1.5 outsole – a new rubber compound for us – and they claim it is their stickiest rubber. We definitely found this rubber to be ultra-sticky and also fairly soft. All of this adds up to a great shoe for technical smearing. We were able to easily flatten our feet over holds with the confidence that we wouldn't slip off. The shoe is pretty sensitive and lets you easily feel where you're putting your foot, but the thicker 4 mm rubber is far from ultra-sensitive.
This shoe is well-suited to smearing, whether on plastic in the gym or on marginal footholds outside. For sustained slab routes or moderate trad climbs, however, we did not enjoy climbing in the Bullit as much. The aggressive shape was quite uncomfortable after standing on slabs for a long time, and the lack of support was fatiguing. This shoe is better suited to shorter-duration climbing, like bouldering or steep sport climbs.
The Ocun Bullit has a softer overall flex, with a bit of support in the forefoot thanks to the relatively thick 4 mm rubber.
Credit: Dom Rickicki
Edging
Ocun's CAT rubber is impressively sticky, but its softness doesn't give you much confidence on small edges, especially on outdoor rock. The aggressive shape lends some support so you can briefly stand on edges, especially on steeper climbs. But for technical face climbing, we recommend looking elsewhere.
Although the Bullit is asymmetric with a high toe angle, the toe is slightly blunted. As a result, this shoe felt less precise – and, admittedly, even a little clunky – when we were trying to find that perfect spot to stand on an edge. Some shoes make up for their soft edges with laser precision, but the Bullit felt like it lacked both qualities.
For the smallest edges, this shoe simply lacks the support to add meaningful security.
Credit: Dom Rickicki
Pulling
This is where the Bullit does a great job of keeping up with the pricier competition. The soft rubber allows you to wrap your toes into holds, and the sticky rubber is really confidence-inspiring when the holds are less positive. The blunted toe makes it a bit harder to find precise foot placements quickly, but we can get around that thanks to the rubber's stickiness.
The heel pocket fit really snug and felt secure while heel hooking on marginal holds. The thin, sensitive rubber made it easy to find the right spot to hook and pull. The Bullit has a sizable patch of ultra-sticky toe rubber that's designed specifically for toe hooking. This toe patch isn't the largest on the shoes we've tested, but it lets you be a little less precise than with shoes with smaller toe patches.
The Ocun CAT Rubber that wraps the Bullit provides a sticky platform for getting purchase on plastic holds.
Credit: Dom Rickicki
Crack Climbing
The Bullit is definitely more bouldering-focused, which makes it pretty uncomfortable in cracks. The wider toe box kept us from wincing as much as some narrower options, but the shape is still very aggressive and hurts to torque into a crack. The softer flex is also fatiguing for sustained jamming.
In some special cases, a technical bouldering shoe can be an advantage on hard technical crack climbs. But because of the more blunted toe on the Bullit, it has a harder time utilizing thin jams. This is a special-use scenario, and we generally don't recommend buying a new bouldering shoe just for your crack project. But if you are looking for that specialty shoe, this isn't the one.
The blunted toe makes it much harder to sneak into thin cracks.
Credit: Dom Rickicki
Should You Buy the Ocun Bullit?
The Bullit is not just a good shoe for the price; it is actually a really good shoe. It doesn't necessarily stand out among the best climbing shoes on the market, but it keeps up with those top-tier models at a much more reasonable price. The Bullit is also a great option for a high-performance gym shoe that can take a bit of abuse – say, a training shoe to complement your comp shoe.
Climbing in the bouldering cave, the Bullit feels about as capable as the more expensive competition.
Credit: Dom Rickicki
What Other Rock Climbing Shoes Should You Consider?
There are several offerings from more popular brands in this price range, but they tend to be clunkier and less comfortable. However, some of those shoes are more durable, particularly the La Sportiva Kubo and the Scarpa Arpia V. If you're shopping on a budget but your climbing tends to lean more trad, check out the Unparallel UpMocc. As far as premium options go, you can't go wrong with either the Scarpa Drago or Scarpa Instinct VS for a bouldering shoe.
Side-by-Side Comparison
Compare Ocun Bullit versus top competing products:
—Dom Rickicki
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