PROS
- Excels on steep, technical terrain
- Extremely sensitive
- Great price
- Lots of rubber coverage
CONS
- Narrow fit and opening
- Mediocre smearing
Let's Take a Closer Look
Our Methods and Tester
My name is Owen Clarke. I’ve been climbing for 15 years, and reviewing climbing shoes professionally for about six years now. I’ve written shoe reviews for industry-leading climbing publications, including Rock and Ice, Climbing, Gym Climber, and Outside, in addition to a wealth of smaller industry blogs and websites such as Moja Gear, Climbing House, and, more recently, FlashPumped.
I wore my Five Ten Hiangles off and on for around six months before writing this review on both rock and plastic. In addition to my personal experience with this shoe, I took into account detailed product reviews from other climbing experts and customer testimonials to craft my opinion of the Five Ten Hiangle.
Usage
The Hiangles are best used for bouldering, steep sport climbing, and technical indoor climbing. They’re designed for precise footwork on steep terrain, and excel at toe hooks, heel hooks, scrums, and other technical foot movements.
Edging
The Hiangle is a superb edger. The toe box is wide and rounded, with a lot of surface area for wider edges and stopping power on high-angled sequences. With the downturn and this wider toe, you can get this shoe to provide good grip and power even on really overhung angles.
Smearing
Like most downturned shoes, Hiangles aren’t top-notch smearers, but they’re sensitive and pliable enough to get the job done. I wouldn’t buy these shoes to work slab, but they aren’t going to hold you back, either.
Heel & Toe Performance
Major points here. Heel hooking in the Hiangle is some of the best out there. Lots of rubber coverage and a bomber “suction” feel, but the rubber still feels quite thin, almost like hooking barefoot.
The toe rubber is substantial and comes in heavy from both sides, for an overall powerful feel that really lends itself well to roofwork, precise bouldering sequences, and hooking. That said, the wider toe box, while sublime for small edges, makes for a less precise lock in small pockets.
Though the shoe gets softer overtime, it’s edge still hasn’t deformed throughout the months I’ve used it. Some reviewers (though not me) feel the heel is a bit overbuilt, and can aggravate the Achilles, because it does run up quite high. Like a lot of aspects of this shoe, it’s going to affect folks differently on a case-by-case basis.
Overhangs
The Hiangle is absolutely bomber on steep terrain. The shoe is fairly heavily downturned, with a slingshot heel rand for added power over the forefoot. The shoe layout is asymmetric, but not extremely so, and the overall profile is relatively neutral with toes closer to center line than most high-performance shoes.
This, coupled with a wider toe box, make the shoe a bit less “talon-like” than other similar models, with a nobbier end that performs well on all manner of steep edges, but less-so when trying to work your way into small pockets.
Sensitivity
At 4.2mm, you’d expect drawbacks in sensitivity, but the Hiangle is still a very sensitive shoe, and the thicker rubber seems to lend it surprising longevity. They’ve held up better than many similar shoes in my quiver. Five Ten’s Stealth C4 rubber is some of the best-in-class, and there’s a high level of coverage (the shoe almost looks like a crack shoe, if not for the downturn), but particularly on the heel and toe this rubber is quite thin, so hooks on both ends feel very tuned in. The Hiangle starts stiff out-the-box, but has a quick break-in period and ultimately sits in the middle of the “stiffness” range.
Comfort
Five Ten touts the Hiangle as a comfort-focused performance shoe, and I guess this comes down to personal preference. I did not find the Hiangles comfortable at all. I have a wider, high-volume foot, and even the standard (not Low Volume) Hiangles sized same as my street shoes were extremely difficult to get on and typically became painful to wear after one or two pitches.
The shoes are plenty long, and for a high-performance shoe, the toebox is fairly wide, so the pain here doesn’t come from a toe smash but more from the overall narrow build of the shoe, both on the forefoot and the heel cup. Climbers with narrow foot shapes may find these shoes comfortable for long days, but I did not, and for a slipper, I’d like it to be easier to get on and off.
Value for Money
The Five Ten Hiangles offer great value for the money. At an MSRP of $160 but with sales and discounts routinely making prices drop to the $100 to $150 range, these are high-performance shoes at a stellar price. Most other shoe models that offer performance of this caliber run closer to $200.
Technical Details
- Sole Thickness: 4.2 mm
- Rubber: Stealth C4
- Lining/Upper: Leather (Unlined)
- Midsole: Stiff Thermoplastic
- Last: Slip-lasted
- Closure: Single Velcro Strap & Slipper
- Design: Asymmetrical & Downturned
- Rigidity: Moderate
- Weight: 15.8 oz
- Fit: Narrow
Five Ten Hiangle Pro
It’s worth mentioning that in addition to a low-volume model, the Hiangle also comes in a slightly more expensive iteration, the Hiangle Pro ($170), geared towards high-end indoor and competition climbing. The Hiangle Pro has a few modifications.
The midsole is softer, though still stiff by competition shoe standards, and the sole is wraparound-style, with varying rubber thickness (3.5mm on the edges, thinning to 2.1mm on the inside). Most reviewers report that the Pros feel a higher volume, though I haven’t worn the shoe and can’t report on that.
How to Size Five Ten Hiangles: Street Shoe Size?
Like most modern Five Ten shoes, the Hiangles are best sized same as your street shoes. If you’re after a performance fit, there’s no reason to downsize, and your standard footwear size should provide the precision and snug fit you’d typically get by downsizing with other shoe brands like La Sportiva.
After wearing Hiangles for the better part of a year, I’d actually recommend wider-footed climbers go a half-size up, or even perhaps a full-size up if looking for all-day comfort. The Hiangle is a very narrow shoe with an equally narrow opening, and in my street shoe size it remains fairly difficult to put on and off even after the leather is broken in.
