Aimed at beginners in terms of comfort, but with enough performance to progress with you, the Origin VS excels in its primary niche - low to midrange indoor bouldering. Even if you're no longer a beginner this is an easy shoe to love, say Rob Greenwood and Penny Orr.

The Origin VS offers a contrasting set of features, with a flat, forgiving and neutral last that's designed to fit pretty much everyone alongside super sticky rubber, and some extras you might not expect from a beginner shoe, such as an M50 rubber toe patch, which is increasingly useful for people climbing indoors - even those who are starting out. 

Here we check out the Origin VS and the Origin VS WMN, the slightly lower volume/narrower women's version.  

In Use

The Origin VS has been designed primarily for beginners to indoor bouldering; however, in spite of this - and the relaxed fit - we've been impressed by how well they perform. On easier problems you'll appreciate the comfort, on harder problems you'll appreciate the fact that their construction - which includes Scarpa's sticky S72 compound rubber - grips extremely well. 

The Origin VS is the sort of shoe that you can wear for an entire session: the single strap adjustment means that they're easy to take on and off, or crank up the pressure for those harder problems. That said, if it is projects and hard climbing you're primarily looking to do then it would be worth looking elsewhere, as there are far more suitable shoes in Scarpa's collection. If you're starting out indoors, and looking to progress, then the Origin VS is perfect as it gives you scope to develop and improve.

Whilst the Origin VS may be aimed at indoor bouldering there is absolutely no reason you can't use it outdoors too. Due to its soft nature and sticky rubber it's brilliant on friction based rock types such as gritstone or sandstone. On edgier rock types you might want something slightly more supportive, but that isn't to say you can't use it, or that it's no good at edging - it's just not what it's best at as the super soft rubber can creep a little on small edges.

Rob: From an indoor/beginners bouldering perspective it's hard to find fault in the Origin VS. In fact, it's hard to find fault even from an intermediate one too, because who doesn't like a comfortable shoe that can also perform impressively well?! One of the things that's surprised me throughout the review process is how little this shoe has let me down on harder problems. If I've failed on something, it's infrequently been down to the shoe - it's been due to my own ability (or lack of). As such, I don't see it as just being for beginners, but instead something that a load of different people can use to climb (primarily) indoors.

Penny: The Origin VS has been super comfortable straight out of the box and required very little, if any, wearing in. Where some beginner shoes can feel quite clunky these feel like higher performance shoes than I was expecting, but without the discomfort that usually comes with performance. I've even used these for a board session and whilst I might not be able to climb my hardest problems in them they do impressively well on all angles despite them not being aggressive or downturned.

Fit

The Origin VS comes in both men's and women's/lower volume fittings. 

It features a flat, forgiving last with a similarly neutral toe profile, which is ideal for anyone starting out - or someone who's been at it for years and doesn't want something that's going to warp and cripple their feet throughout a long session. This isn't a shoe you need to buy too tight and it isn't designed to be worn with your toes rammed right up against the end, so if you're trying them out and they seem uncomfortable then they're either the wrong size or a poor fit. This is a shoe that should feel comfortable. Size-wise it's worth going down a single UK size in order to get a good snug fit.

Features

We've already mentioned the M50 toe patch (which is great) and the 3.5mm S72 sole (which is also great), but the other compound used is a much higher wearing rubber around the rand. This is a real blessing to beginners, who have a tendency to drag their feet up against the walls (we probably all did it when we were starting out). The rand rubber aims to combat the wear that this would ordinarily cause. On the flip side, that super sticky S72 does wear out quite quickly if you are sloppy with your footwork, so be warned. The other downside of this soft rubber is that it can creep on the smallest of edges. We haven't noticed this much indoors, but we would also say that if you're on the smallest of edges then the Origin VS probably isn't the shoe you'd want to be wearing anyway!

Summary

We've really rated the Origin VS. Its last means that it should fit just about everyone (no guarantees - do try them for yourself) and the fact that it's comfortable yet still manages to give a good level of performance makes it really appealing for indoor bouldering, whether you're an outright beginner of just a fan of non-crippling footwear. The blend of features, such as the super sticky sole and toe patch, also mean that it's future-proofed for when you begin to move up through the grades. The price is also pretty competitive for such a well-made shoe.