Originally released in 2014, the Scarpa Instinct VS isn't a new shoe on the market. But its unique characteristics make it one of our favorite all-around shoes for modern climbing styles. The soft and flexible midsole, combined with a stiff forefoot, offers nearly unparalleled performance on everything from heel hooks to small dime edges.
The Instinct VS is a performance-oriented shoe that forgoes extra padding and the like to provide greater sensitivity and a tight fit. After a week or so of break-in, the thin, glove-like upper molded to our foot and was comfortable enough to climb longer, steeper sport pitches. While it is not a shoe designed for all-day comfort, it is more comfortable than other high-performance shoes we tested. The forefoot offers a roomier fit, which makes the Instinct VS a particularly good option for climbers with wider feet.
The toebox is tall, which makes it easier to size the Instinct VS so that your toes curl up into a crimp-like position. It's comfortable enough for folks looking for a shoe with this aggressive shape, but if you prefer a flatter toe angle, you'll likely find the Instinct VS rather uncomfortable. You could always size up a bit to flatten your toes, but this may leave you with dead space in other parts of the shoe, which could create other issues.
Where the Instincts VS shines is its ability to smear well on real rock in varied terrain, where you have to use a variety of footwork techniques throughout a pitch or problem. The softer mid-foot flex and thinner outsole give it the flexibility to flatten out over holds, providing good contact with the rock. The stiffer forefoot helps you hang out on these smears longer, say, while fiddling with gear or contemplating the next move on your onsite attempts.
If your goal is to climb long slab routes, the high toebox angle of this shoe means that your feet will likely be screaming by the end of the pitch. Conversely, if you're climbing on large gym volumes, the less sticky, stiffer Vibram Edge rubber won't perform as well as a shoe with a softer, more sensitive flex or a stickier rubber compound. But if you need it to, the Instinct VS can confidently smear on short slabby sections or flat holds in steep terrain.
Many other top edging shoes tend to forego sensitivity for support, but the Instinct VS strikes a really nice balance between the two. It's sensitive enough to find the perfect spot to stand on small edges, but also supportive enough to stand tall off those edges. This is thanks to the shoe's unique combination of a thinner, 3.5 mm layer of Vibram XS Edge rubber (compared to the 4 mm thickness manufacturers typically use with this compound), a Flexan insert in the midsole, and a split sole, which softens midfoot flex. The Edge rubber and Flexan work in unison to stiffen the forefoot and support your toes, while the thinner outsole and midfoot flex make the Instinct VS more sensitive. The aptly named Edge rubber also helps your shoe from deforming at the edge of small holds and rolling off.
While the Instinct VS edges well, this performance is limited to steeper terrain, shorter routes, or boulder problems. The soft flex of the mid-foot comes at the cost of full-foot support – during sustained efforts in vertical terrain, our feet fatigued faster than in shoes with a stiffer sole. That said, if your projects are steeper with only short sections of thin edging, these shoes will help you power through those sections, and still be useful for other sections that require you to smear or pull on bigger holds. Our lead tester particularly enjoyed these shoes for bouldering in Rocky Mountain National Park, where the technical granite and gneiss boulders often require pressing off small footholds.
When things get steep and you're trying to grab onto incut holds with your feet, the Instinct VS is versatile enough to pull off these moves confidently, but it's not a specialist in this regard. The toe has a large patch of textured, sticky rubber that helps with occasional toe hooks but lacks coverage and sensitivity for highly technical toe hooking. The aggressive shape of the shoe sucks your heel tightly into the heel pocket, and the thin, sensitive rubber helps you feel confident that you won't slip off while heel hooking.
While this shoe isn't a roof climbing specialist, we really enjoyed it for overhung climbing at places like the Wizards Gate in Estes Park, CO. At this crag, the routes typically start with lower-angle, technical moves, but finish on pumpy overhangs. The Instinct VS's ability to edge and smear well enough got us through the faces lower on the pitch, while the softer mid-foot flex helped us pull with our feet on the steep sections. It's not uncommon to move through a variety of terrain while sport climbing, and a shoe like the Instinct VS handles whatever a pitch can throw at you.
The Instinct VS is a high-performing generalist, but it leans toward the bouldering and steep routes end of the spectrum rather than the vertical routes and crack climbing end. We don't recommend this shoe for this type of climbing – the high toe box angle left us wincing in pain while jamming cracks.
The lack of padding also makes you feel every bit of the rock you are stuffing your feet into, and the softer flex leads to more fatigue over time when jamming. Some people may find this shoe useful for highly technical, steep crack projects that use occasional jams. However, this is a pretty specialized use, and it's only worth experimenting with the Instinct VS if you have already decided to buy it for all of the other reasons we recommend this shoe.
In the world of modern steep sport climbing and bouldering, the Scarpa Instinct VS is versatile enough to be the only shoe you own. From standing on small edges to smearing on slabby boulders, or heel hooking out a roof, this shoe will take whatever you throw at it. If you're willing to put up with the high toe box angle, any climber should consider buying the Instinct VS as their next high-performance shoe.
