The La Sportiva Skwama Vegan: A Review

La Sportiva recently introduced a new version of the popular Skwama climbing shoe – the Skwama Vegan. Sporting a new lime green look, the Skwama Vegan is made entirely without animal-derived materials. The shoe features a new insole, the SkinLike Microbase, which contours to the foot while being both breathable and anti-odor. Other than these new materials and colour palette, the Vegan’s construction and features remain essentially unchanged from the original leather Skwama.

The Skwama is a soft, sensitive, downturned slipper-style shoe that’s surprisingly versatile. It’s not going to edge like the super stiff Miura VS or drive into steep pockets like the Solution. It is, however, a high-performance workhorse, feeling at home on delicate slabs, techy faces, and severe overhangs. La Sportiva’s famous P3 rand locks in the aggressive downturn for the life of the shoe, an asset on steep walls and boulders. But unlike many downturned shoes, the Skwama’s flexibility allows it to also be a weapon on smeary and smedgy terrain.

I’ve worn the leather Skwama – the yellow and red model – for the past few years and have really enjoyed them. I wear them on steep sport pitches, thin cracks, and boulder problems, especially ones with critical heel hooks. I find the Skwama to have the best heel cup out of any shoe I’ve ever tried. The S-Heel technology introduced with the shoe is a gamechanger – it feels like the heel cup is superglued to your heel. The S-Heel innovation is essentially a small bar of inflexible rubber on the heel cup that prevents the heel from collapsing and slipping off during powerful heel hooks.

The extra rubber over the toebox is great for toe hooks and added security and comfort in cracks. While the toebox is relatively wide compared to many high-end climbing shoes – great for climbers with wider feet – it is quite thin in profile, which is perfect for thin cracks.

One knock on the leather Skwama is that it stretches out quite a bit over time. This is great for comfort, but can be an issue for performance if you don’t fit the shoe with future stretch in mind. To account for this, I’ve actually been rocking two pairs, one for routes and one a half size smaller for bouldering.

When I first became aware of the Skwama Vegan, I was curious, but I must admit I was a little apprehensive. I’m a big fan of the Skwama and was afraid that the new version wouldn’t feel like the shoe I had grown to rely on. I’ve been testing out the new Skwama Vegan for the past two months in Squamish and it’s safe to say that my apprehensions were unfounded. For me, the Skwama Vegan performs identically to the Skwama.

Although they have the same on-rock and on-plastic performance, there are two important differences between the Skwama and new Skwama Vegan to mention. The first is that the Skwama Vegan has a slightly more uncomfortable break in. When brand new, the synthetic material feels a little stiff – almost plasticky – especially around the mouth of the shoe. After a modest break-in period, it becomes more soft and supple like the Skwama.

The second is that because the Vegan is synthetic, it doesn’t stretch out as much as the previous leather model. This feature will be a huge plus for most climbers as we all want to hold onto that peak shoe performance phase as long as possible. Is this trade off worth it – a slightly more uncomfortable break-in for longer-term performance? The answer is a resounding yes from me.

Whether you’ve been a long-time fan of the Skwama or never worn the shoe before, the Skwama Vegan is well worth checking out. Versatility, performance, and that amazing S-heel cup now all come animal cruelty-free.