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Shauna Coxsey and the Five Ten Anasazi Pro

Shauna Coxsey and the Five Ten Anasazi Pro

Two-time World Cup Bouldering Champion, Shauna Coxsey, helped develop the Five Ten Anasazi Pro climbing shoes.

The British-born athlete is known for bouldering and competitive climbing. She’s a training fanatic who does Cross-Fit in her spare time and climbs both indoors and out.

Coxsey was young when she got hooked on climbing. At four years old, she watched a TV show about Catherine Destiville, who at the time was arguably the most famous female climber in Europe.

The program was about Destiville’s trip to Mali, with hauntingly beautiful footage of some of the most unusual rock formations in the world.

Mesmerized by the footage, Shauna accompanied a group of fellow preschoolers to a local climbing wall. Within a few weeks, she demanded that her dad learn to belay. “I was hooked,” she says.

In 2002, Coxsey was attending a competition at a tiny English climbing gym, and she came across a pair of small Five Ten rock shoes. “We found a pair of tiny 5.10’s in a small sports shop and they fit!” she said. They were her first pair of Five Ten shoes.

Shauna Coxsey with Five Ten Anasazi Pro

By the time she was in her early teens, Coxsey’s competitive climbing career took off. She started working on hard boulder problems and soon racked up an impressive list of difficult ascents. Her shoe of choice was the Five Ten Anasazi LV (low volume), Five Ten’s premier women’s specific model.

Eventually, her friend and climbing partner, Ned, speculated that a climbing shoe with with a sticky-rubber toe cap would help Coxsey cling to overhangs and gain purchase on barely-there rock crystals.

As the Five Ten Anasazi LV fit Coxsey’s foot, they started experimenting with shoe “hacks” to adjust the tried-n-true design to fit her competition needs. “My shoes certainly give me more confidence,” relates Coxsey.

They started by adding Stealth rubber patches over the top of Coxsey’s Anasazi LV’s. Then they talked to Five Ten’s footwear design team about their ideas.

Throwing shapes at The Hub GB today. . . . #climbing #shapes

A post shared by SHAUNA COXSEY (@shaunacoxsey) on

The result? The Anasazi Pro, with high-friction Mi6 rubber that was originally created by Five Ten for dare-devil stunts in the Mission Impossible movie franchise.

“Mi6 is so soft and sticky. It’s perfect for toe hooks. Stealth C4 is a bit stiffer and works way better on edges without compromising its ability to smear on volumes,” said Coxsey.

“I think it’s really important that we keep developing new products and improving them. I think it’s great that companies like Five Ten reach out to athletes for feedback and design input. After all, we’re spending such a significant amount of time on the wall and we are passionate about performance.”

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