A last is the mold that fits inside a shoe as it is built or repaired. I 3D print my lasts based on scans of customers feet who choose to have a pair of lasts built for them, a great option if you expect to have multiple rand repairs, modifications, or custom shoes built by me.
Scans typically take about 5-10 minutes and I prefer to take them at Basecamp
Design and printing of your own Personalized Lasts that stay in the shop for work done on your shoes.
Rand repairs require a well fitting last. If I don't have a Personalized Last for you, I will use the best fitting last I have in stock. This may result in a change in shape of the shoe's toe box.
Requires a Personalized Last.
Using this system allows me to cater to climbers from a veriety of incomes. If you like what I do and can afford to pay more, it is greatly appreciated. You would be helping improve the shop to produce better shoes and repairs, as well as ensuring work like this is finacially viable. Thank you.
Custom shoe ordering form coming soon. For now, you can contact me at 605 939 0550 if you are interested.
Hello. My name is Murray, and I am a climbing shoe resoler based in the Black Hills of South Dakota. I got started in the summer of 2023 when I started to look into getting my first resole done on a pair of Katanas. I had been climbing for about a decade by then, and honestly was not aware resoling was a thing for almost all of that. Finding resoling was a service not available in my area, I made the mistake all DIY minded people do and watched some Youtube videos. I repurposed my beloved pizza reheating toaster oven and a gifted harbor freight belt sander (thanks Riley), and by the end of the week I was posting pictures of my first pair of shoes sitting under the tire of a campervan acting as a press. It did not work well. But I got some stoke from climbers in the area who were excited I was even trying.
Flash forward a year, and I've fully commited to resoling as a career. I have a ton of thanks to give to Jay at Backcountry Cobblers for letting me visit and ask him questions on how all this works, my local cobbler shop Bob's Shoe Repair for selling me old equipment at a very generous price, and all the experienced Cobblers who have given me advice. This isn't an easy trade to get into. Most of the equipment is crazy expensive, so I've had to improvise and build some of it myself. The lasts needed to do rand repairs are completely unavailable in the US unless you are an authorized La Sportiva resoler... But to become one you need the lasts you don't have just to get experience at resoling and repairing shoes.
To get around that catch-22, many cobblers start by building their lasts out of wood. I saw a website claiming to have 3D printable climbing lasts, so I went ahead and bought a printer, figuring it was that or a bandsaw. The online climbing lasts didn't have the best shape, but they did get me started in learning how to design my own. I made quite a few over the next six months that also didn't have the best shape. I tried everything I could - shoving playdough down the toe, plaster, tracing in three different planes. By then I was pretty close to broke and therefor didn't look into 3D scanners, assuming they were expensive. Turns out we live in the future and I got a perfectly good Creality scanner for less than $200 bucks.
This changed things. I got started scanning shoes to get the last shape. I got better with the 3D design software, learning to use new tools I hadn't realized existed. And of course... who hasn't sat there trying shoe after shoe wishing there was some way they could just scan your foot and make a shoe that finally fits. Well, we can. I'm hopeful this will be the future of Black Hole Resole. I think we as climbers have accepted too much pain and discomfort in our shoes. The infamous toe knuckle callous that grows and grows and threatens to burst out of your shoe. Hot spots. Foot fatigue. That tingling feeling you get as circulation is cut off from your toes, only to return when you are desparately pulling the heel of your shoe as you are lowered to the ground.
No more I say! Rise up fellow climbers whose feet don't fit perfectly in the beaked toe of a Solution! Rise up wide footed climbers, with a baggy heel because you needed to size up to the roomier toe box! Rise up and throw off the oppression of crushingly tight shoes and foot cramps! Free your toes!
And by that I mean give a custom shoe a try. I still have a lot to learn about last design and shoe making, but as of right now, after making just one shoe for myself? I don't think I could go back.