New Stealth® Paint Patch Kit

Five Ten has a new patch kit on the market, Stealth® Paint.

Stealth® Paint is a rubber compound developed from recycled Stealth® Rubber. It is designed for use on climbing shoes to increase durability and perform spot repairs while still offering the friction Stealth® Rubber is known for.

The kit includes a small tin of powered recycled Stealth® Rubber, a tube of Barge Cement, a plastic spoon, and a stirring rod. As well as instructions that are more like ideas on how one might use the kit.

I was able to test out this kit and discovered that if you follow the directions exactly you are most likely to end up with a rubber booger sculpture on your shoe. So, I would like to offer my own suggestions on use for success.

-First off you must do this outside no amount of ventilation inside can vent those fumes effectively.
-Stuff your shoe with newspaper .
-Make sure to clean off area of your climbing shoe to be painted; I suggest roughing up the surface with some sandpaper.
-Next use masking tape to tape off area where you DON’T want paint. It has to be masking tape.
-Then apply the Barges cement to area to be painted. Allow this to dry completely.
-Use something besides the lid of the tin for this next part. (Something small and disposable works -- yogurt container or the like)
-Mix at most one spoon full of the rubber with a half spoon full of the cement; I say this because you have less than 30 seconds once it is mixed together to get the paint on the shoe.
(If you let it sit for 30 sec first it is much harder to apply smoothly)
So doing several smaller batches works much better.
-Use the mixing rod to apply the paint to area where cement is on your shoe. Rolling the rod over the paint makes it pretty smooth.
-Allow to dry, over night is best.
-Once its dry peel off tape carefully. Use the sand paper to lightly sand down edge of paint I think this helps to keep it from delaminating.
-Try not to touch the wet paint once it is applied. If you do, it just kind of balls up and won’t stick as well.

I used the paint to fix some small areas on my La Sportiva Solutions the toe patch was starting to delaminate (after a year of climbing). The Stealth® Paint worked really well for this it seems to be holding up well even to toe hooking and the like. It is even sticking really well to the upper which it synthetic on these shoes. Over all, I think it’s worth the money. I don’t think this paint will make your shoes seem like band new again but it should give them an extended life.

Good luck and if you have any tips or ideas for better success feel free to add them.

Thanks.
Sam

Vertical Relief has the Stealth® Paint Do it Yourself Kits for sale. The kit retails for $16.99.