What Shoes Does Janja Garnbret Use?

Janja Garnbret is one of the best climbers in the world at the moment.

Inspired by her amazing feats, I’m sure some climbers will have wondered what this reincarnated spider monkey is wearing on her feet.

So, before I carry on, it’s worth mentioning that shoes don’t make the climber. Everybody has different preferences and reasons for wearing certain pairs. Hell, Adam Ondra even wore two different shoes at once for a particular climb to make use of their strengths and weaknesses.

Updated for 2022:

Since our original post in 2019, Janja has continued to improve. became the first ever female Olympic sport climbing champion with gold medal in the 2020 summer Olympic games. And then followed it up with a win and a 2nd place finish in the 2021 IFSC Climbing World Cup season.

She’s started off the 2022 season just as hot, with a IFSC World Cup gold medal in bouldering and then three…YES, THREE…gold metals in lead, bouldering and climbing events of the 2022 European Championships.

All that winning hasn’t changed Ganbret’s preferred selection of climbing shoes. She’s still wearing the Adidas Five Ten Hiangle as her climbing shoe of choice.

While it is mostly unchanged, there was a major upgrade recently that improved the overall flexibility and arch support…the dived split sole. The new version of the Hiangle also introduced improved heel cups, with enhanced rubber for improved friction on those more technical heel hooks.

If we’re being honest, if this shoe is good enough for Janja Ganbret to stick with over the last several years, then it’s definitely good enough for us!

After watching the 2019 IFSC World Cups, it quickly became clear that the Hiangles are a favorite of Janjas.

The Hiangles have unlined leather upper, which is one the most stretchy materials that’s ever used in climbing shoes. What this means is that when you buy a pair it’s better to size them super tight as they will definitely stretch a fair bit.

With Stealth C4 rubber and an aggressive downturn, the shoes are pretty good for anything overhanging. The rubber is pretty standard on high-performance shoes and the aggressive downturn helps your toes catch holds or jutted out bits of rock while climbing anything steep.

Design-wise, I think the hiangles are pretty modest compared to the hyper-bright colors on a lot of shoes you see these days. Existing in half red half grey, the shoe has an almost bland feel. The saving grace is the strap which has a yellow under and Hiangle logo which adds that little splash of color which stops them being boring. Of course, this does not affect the performance. Aesthetics are not everything.

Also, there has recently been a debate whether the sizing of these shoes has changed. Several users on the Adidas website point out that the shoes seem to have shrunk a little. 

One user states “The new 9.5 seem very close to the old 9’s,” so if you are thinking of picking up a pair it might be worth buying a size larger than usual (unless you like a good struggle).

Even with this change in mind, most buyers are still happy with the shoe in the end – just annoyed about the lack of communication regarding the change from Adidas.

While if it’s unclear if Adidas has made any changes to 5.10’s sizing since taking over in 2011, users still agree that it’s a pretty damn good shoe.