The Day Sticky Rubber Came To Town

The Day Sticky Rubber Came To Town

Story by Curt Wohlgemuth

In the spirit of "where were you when you heard Kennedy was shot?", and just as meaningless to those younger than a certain age, what did the introduction of sticky rubber mean to you?

For me, this was one of those crystalline memories that changed things forever. I remember being at Suicide with my EBs as usual, when two different people had these funny grey and red shoes that everybody was gathering around. They raved about them. They said they'd revolutionize climbing. I'd never heard of these "Feeray" thingies.

When I went to my job at a climbing/backpacking shop on Monday, lo and behold the owner, bless his heart, had stacks of these things in the middle of the floor; apparently he had an in with Bachar, who was bringing them in from Spain. I bought a pair on the spot; it's hard to describe the excitement these shoes had on all of us there. I think nearly all of them were sold within hours, none of them at retail.

Indeed, they did revolutionize our community. Wheeler's had Fire rubber, but wouldn't resole our EBs and RRs; they were constrained to only resole Boreal shoes with this magic stuff. Were we pissed! The market for Green Dot rubber must have dried up pretty fast; I wonder what it all got used for?

Just as with Friends a couple of years before, we debated as to the "fairness" of them on existing grades, and how they'd allow sloppy-footed newcomers to climb those exalted difficult climbs we had worked so hard on (for me, that was probably 5.9). But unlike Friends, nobody turned up their noses at them, arguing that they'd never fly -- one trip up the Weeping Wall or on Tuolumne domes proved otherwise.

As I look over my shoe quiver today, it's hard to remember that those clunky high tops with the funny name ushered in the changes they did. It was a pretty cool time.

Curt