Black Hole Resole

Resole Form

Important:
- Please do not include carabiners, cord, or other items with your shoes.
- Rand repairs require a resole.
- Do not drop off only one shoe. (Unless you only have one foot)

Your information:

How are you getting your shoes to me?

  • Black Hole Resole
    12017 Sturgis Rd
    Black Hawk, SD 57718

How am I returning your shoes to you?

If I find repairs necessary to complete the resole, what repairs are you willing to do?

  • Toe caps are not offered at this time. Rand repairs are best done with a Personalized Last. See Price List for details.
  • I will inspect the shoes to see if I believe they need rand repair before removing the sole, but some damage is only revealed after the sole is removed. I will inform you if there is damage beyond your repair preferences and you can decide at that point if you would like the shoes returned to you or tossed.

Additional repairs you would like done?

  • Check this if there are delaminations you are aware of that you want me to check for. Describe in comments section.

Modifications?

  • Requires Half Rand and Personalized Last.
  • Describe in comments section.
  • Replacement split soles can be made longer (Otaki, Kataki), or shorter (Skwama). Describe in comments section.

Rubber for resoling?

  • Very Soft (relative hardness: -7)
  • Medium (relative hardness: 0)
  • Medium (relative hardness: +1)
  • Hard (relative hardness: +3)
  • Hard (relative hardness: +4)
  • You can let me know what you use these shoes for (sport, trad, boulder...), and on what kind of rock (limestone, granite, gym...) in the comment section below.

Additional Comments or Special Requests:

Estimate: $0

Price List

Resole Rubber

Personalized Last

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.

Repairs

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.

Modifications/Custom Shoes

Requires a Personalized Last.

Custom Shoes

Custom shoe ordering form coming soon. For now, you can contact me at 605 939 0550 if you are interested.

About

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.