Climbing is much more than just a sport!
Climbing is an attitude to life. Climbing makes you happy. Climbing is one of the most amazing things you can do in life! And yet climbing can be a horror for your feet.
Painful feet due to ill-fitting climbing shoes are quite common in climbing, because of the enormous diversity of foot shapes and standard climbing shoes don’t serve everyone. Until now, a foot has to adapt to the shape of a standard shoe, which causes pain and it can lead to longterm damage.
This is exactly where hooq sets the focus and develops custom climbing shoes that meet the unique shape of each foot and the unique preferences of each climber.
What it's all about
A climbing shoe is a technical sports shoe that is specifically optimized for climbing and it has a very tight fit. The most important feature of a climbing shoe is, that it fits perfectly and provides optimal support.
For this, hooq is developing a completely new digital customization process to make customization more efficient and accessible to everyone, regardless of their foot shape. Leading to a unique climbing experience - with a lot of sensitivity and pure climbing pleasure, instead of unnecessary pain.
We have been developing, optimizing and testing on this process and our technology for over two years now and have been able to successfully produce custom climbing shoes of the highest quality with our latest prototypes, laying the basis for this crowdfunding.
In this crowdfunding you can choose between two models: A semi-custom and a full-custom climbing shoe:
The focus of this campaign is on the semi-costum climbing shoe. Based on a 3D scan of your feet, the best fitting shape for each foot is selected from a predefined shoe shape library. In addition, you can choose certain features of your unique climbing shoes.
Limited to only 3 pieces, the full-custom climbing shoe shows the possibilities of our customizing process and in which direction we will expand our product range in the future. Starting with the 3D scan of your feet, a fully customized shoe shape is created with our digital shoe shaping process. The full-custom process makes it possible to address your foot shape and climbing shoe wishes even more precisely. Thus, specific solutions for unique foot characteristics can be found.
What to expect
Once you have decided on a hooq custom climbing shoe, the first step is to scan your feet, which is the basis of your unique climbing shoe. For this purpose, we are present in various climbing gyms and at events throughout Switzerland, where you can have your feet scanned by us.
The first dates are already posted on our website (www.hooq.ch) and will be updated continuously and shared on social media. We are looking forward to your visit!
As a next step, you can configure certain features of your climbing shoes, such as stiffness or the sole rubber, or let us give you a recommendation before your shoe goes in production. Climbing is an interplay between human and nature. Therefore, the focus is not only on high-quality climbing shoes with a perfect fit and unique features, but equally on their sustainable and fair production in Europe.
To realize our vision and produce your climbing shoe, we need your support now! This will allow us to advance the research and development of our digital technology for the customization of climbing shoes and make it accessible to everyone. In addition, you will support the development of the production for your custom climbing shoes and support a Swiss startup in this important phase.
Note: We expect production of the climbing shoes in early summer 2024, but we’ll do our best to send out the vouchers before Christmas 2023. Be aware that we can offer shipping of products only within Switzerland at this stage.