For indoor bouldering, you should wear your current workout clothes, rock shoes, casual slip-on shoes, and a lightweight jacket.
Indoor bouldering can be an immensely fun and rewarding physical activity. However, there is always the crucial question of what to wear when bouldering! What’s is appropriate? What is recommended? What is appropriate? Here we will learn more about the proper bouldering attire. Let’s break these all down, shall we?
Workout Clothes
If there is one rule about bouldering attire to remember, it’s this: If you’ll wear it to the gym, it will work for bouldering. You would be even better prepared if you were to take the flexibility of your current exercise clothes and ramp that up even more. Flexibility is the name of the game. There is also even an added level of casual to bouldering attire that you don’t see as much in a regular gym.
Unlike outdoor bouldering where clothing requires much more weight and padding due to safety precautions, you can get away with much lighter fabrics when indoor bouldering. Bouldering gym floors are covered with protective matts to help break your fall should you take a tumble.
Although a bit of bagginess in your clothing is okay, when it comes to indoor bouldering, the slimer the fit the better. Remember that flexibility is paramount, so make sure that the slim fir clothes you choose to wear have a lot of flexibility to offer to you in your bouldering adventures.
Tops
People wear all sorts of tops when bouldering indoors, from casual tops to t-shirts to tanks to workout tops. Sleeves or no sleeves are fine if they don’t get in the way of your grip when climbing. Remember to keep it slim fit!
Bottoms
Before you ask the question, yes — you can wear shorts when bouldering! Whether your pants or leggings are on the long or short end of length, they will help you out during your climbing. Remember though — just like your tops, you want to go for the slimmer fit. You wouldn’t want your pants to get in the way of your bouldering.
Skinny or slim stretch jeans, although not the absolute best choice, are a good choice for climbing as well. As long as they are made to stretch and cling to you well, they’ll serve you well.
Rock Shoes
These might be the most important piece of clothing for bouldering. You could technically do indoor bouldering naked perfectly well if your bouldering shoes are on your feet (please do not go bouldering naked).
Rock shoes, or bouldering / climbing shoes, are specially designed for bouldering. They have a thin yet strong layer that clings almost skin-tight to your feet with white-knuckle traction on the soles. This allows you not only to protect your feet, but to have incredible traction as well as flexibility for your feet! These are essential for any boulderer.
Don’t worry though — though you can absolutely buy your own pair of rock shoes, you don’t need to go to the bouldering gym. Like a bowling alley, bouldering gyms have plenty of rock shoes for you to rent while you’re there. Also like bowling alleys, you have to wear the rental shoes with no socks. The staff do regularly clean the shoes, but if there is any reason for you to buy your own rock shoes, there it is.
Slip-On Shoes
Because rock shoes are only good for bouldering and not really for anything else (walking included), you’d want to arrive to and leave from your bouldering experience with a different pair of shoes, a more comfortable pair.
It’s important to bring an extra pair of shoes along with you, preferably a pair that is easy to slip on and off. Not only does this allow you more comfort for your feet while bouldering, but it also prevents you from having to walk the floors of the gym restrooms with only your thin, skin-tight little rock shoes.
Lightweight Jacket
Thankfully, most bouldering gyms are air-conditioned. There is a flip side to that though. Bouldering can be a strenuous physical feat that can lead to you sweating like you haven’t sweated in a hot minute.
Like when you get out of the pool and the wind chill sends a shiver through your system, so is finishing a sweaty bouldering session and taking a break with nothing to protect you from the AC’s chill. Bringing a light jacket may not seem like a priority at first, but it will help you stay warm enough when taking breaks in between climbing sessions.
In Conclusion
We hope that this article has been as enjoyable for you as it was informative. Hopefully this will not only give you a better idea of how to prepare for indoor bouldering, but also get you excited to find your nearest gym. Happy climbing!