The Gear Shop at Shift

Somewhere between your third visit and your thirtieth, rental shoes stop being enough. That's what our gear shop is for. It lives right inside the gym, it's stocked by the people who climb here every day, and everything in it earned its shelf space - if we wouldn't use it, we don't sell it.

Try them on the wall, not on carpet. Buying climbing shoes online is a coin flip. Buying them here works differently: put them on, walk twenty feet, and climb in them before you commit. Sizes and models rotate, and if you're between sizes, someone on staff has probably climbed in both - just ask.

What's in the shop

Don't take our word for it

Chalk, skin, and the small stuff that saves a session

The difference between a good session and a great one is usually something small: dry hands on the last slopey top-out, fingertips that recover by Thursday, a hold that finally feels clean again. This shelf is that difference.

Chalk. Chalk has one job - keeping sweat from turning holds slick - and better chalk simply does that job longer, which matters most on slopers, in summer humidity, and deep in a session when your hands run hot. We stock FrictionLabs Gorilla Grip and Bam Bam in three sizes: in OutdoorGearLab's hands-on chalk testing, Gorilla Grip "consistently felt the most grippy" of everything they tried, and 99Boulders' chalk roundup landed the same place: "the Friction Labs was still our favorite." Prefer something else? Tokyo Powder Pure and Black, Enigma chunky chalk, Cypher chalk balls, and humble $2 blocks all live here too. And our handmade canvas chalk buckets in four sizes, because your chalk deserves a nicer home than a plastic bag.

Skin care. Climbing is a skin sport: most sessions end when your fingertips do, not when your muscles do, and a skin routine is the cheapest way to climb more days per week. We carry the full Rhino Skin Solutions lineup - Repair, the after-session cream that earned Climbing Magazine's Editors' Choice award ("does the best job in treating my notoriously callused and dry hands"), plus Performance and Dry for before you climb, and Split and Super Glue for when you pushed it anyway - TrainingBeta reviewed the whole system if you want the deep dive. Alongside it: Climbskin hand cream, a skin file, and finger tape in four widths.

Brushes. A brushed hold is a stickier hold - chalk and rubber buildup fill exactly the texture your skin and shoes rely on. We stock Lapis brushes including boar's hair (99Boulders: "a common sight at the gym or the boulders, and for good reason") and FAZA brushes with swappable natural-boar or nylon heads.

Boot Bananas - the moisture-and-odor absorbers Climbing Magazine called "a simple yet elegant tool" for exactly this problem, and one of the best-selling items in the building. Draw your own conclusions.

Train at home, climb harder here

For the between-sessions crowd we stock Beastmaker hangboards - the 1000 for developing fingers, and the 2000, which OutdoorGearLab calls the best hangboard for advanced users with "some of the best texture in our review." Alongside them: the Tension Grindstone edge-training platform - from the same company as the Tension Board 2 on our floor - plus the So iLL Block for portable finger training, strength trainers, and the Ergo Edge. Grab one, then ask a setter how to actually use it - that part's free.

Wear the gym

Our apparel rack is designed the way our boulders are set: on purpose, in small runs that don't come back. Hoodies, tees, crew necks, hats, and collab pieces with local makers - plus setter-humor shirts that only make sense once you've been here. When a run sells out, it's gone, so if you love it, that's your sign.

Come see what's on the shelf

The shop is inside Shift at 12345 James Street, just off US-31 - no appointment, no pressure, and free advice with every visit. Plan a first visit, see the whole facility, or just come in and try something on. And remember: if we don't have it, we'll order it.