Climbing shoe
By Leah Linaweaver
The history of the climbing shoe
In the 1930s, Vitale Bramani invented the first "rubber lug sole" for shoes. It was called a Vibram Sole, and he used these to replace the normal mountaineering boot's leather sole.
By the late 1940s, rock climbers were starting to climb very extreme and hard routes.
During the 1950s, Pierre Allain, introduced hard composite, rubber soled canvas boots that became known as "PA" boots, and were used by climbers all over the world.
During the 1960s and 1970s, Eduard Bourdineau, introduced his "EB" boots, and these had much softer rubber soles, and became massively popular.
Then in 1975, Jesus Garcia Lopez founded the company Boreal, and along with Miguel Angel Garcia Gallego, began to experiment with the first "sticky rubber" rock shoes.
1980, Jesus Garcia Lopez created the prototype of a boot that he named "Fire".