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Review > Project Holds > Fins

Fresh out of the molds and straight to our doorstep, the Fins are the newest shapes from Project. Charles has always been kind enough to send us the full set of holds so we can get a good feel of what the whole range has to offer. The Fins are a strange breed, they range from medium to extra large and at first glance they seem to be nice big jugs, at least that's what I thought when I saw them for the first time on the Project website. Jackie and Noodles were the first ones to play on them and when I saw the video of the session it was clear that they were far from being the nice easy jugs that we love to warm up on. They are flat to incut and on a vertical wall they won't take much to stick them. The x-large set is the most deceiving of them all (as noted, they look like jugs but clearly are not). They all have a lip on them that makes the hold more of a pinch than anything else which proves useful when working on overhanging terrain. They're very comfortable holds with round edges that won't dig into the fingers. The texture is smooth, the color is great and they'll always have you coming back for more.

Jackie and Noodles were the first to have fun with them and the holds threw them a curve ball when they set on the 45. In the end they needed to add a hold (and an alternate one for Eve since she doesn't have a long reach like the boys) to make it to the top of the 45. The route continued traversing along the wall and despite repeating myself, the holds were deceptive. They placed a couple of the x-large holds up as side pulls, and it looks as if the sequence will be a walk in the park, but when you catch the hold the realization is that they are not jugs and its going to require a bit more effort to get across the wall
VID

VID END
Our second set was a traverse going the other way starting on the vertical wall. It started on a hold that we set upside down . The lip on the holds make it so you can grab the holds any which way, so getting yourself off the ground is easier than you'd think. (Noodles: I disagree I ended up on the floor a few times) So the route was set with the holds upside down and every thing in between, Jacky likes to make it hard for people. If the hold was at a bad angle all you needed was the lip to help you stay on.. Eve is the smallest member of the CHR crew and has the shortest reach but she still managed to get across using one intermediate hold on the sequence.

We've always been a fan of Project Holds and the Fins are no exception. Their shapes are unique and there holds worth the money. Project is a small company (its run by Charles, and him alone) and we're impressed with what comes out of their shop. Be it a gym or an addition to a woody these holds will find itself at home on any wall :)

Note: We always read your comments and use them to improve the quality of our reviews. Brett Olsen suggested that we do a more in depth video of the holds. Following is a walk through of the second problem:

The Fins are very diverse, they can be set on a vertical wall, overhang, and even some of the more incut holds a can be set on a roof. Ideally though they are for vertical to slight overhanging terrain. If you're looking for a challenge, just turn the holds upside down. They work really well as big pinches, and this we think is where they excel.... vertically you're going to get a challenge, horizontally you'll just haul around with no problem, upside down you're going to have fun trying to stay on the wall :P

Nice easy shapes, but don't get too confident, remember that these are more on the pinchy side. The roundness of the shapes make it so you can challenge yourself on the steeper terrain with the minimal finger pain at the end of the session and makes a good training tool.

Because of the size beginners should be ok with these holds on a 30 degree overhung wall, anyone with some experience will be ok on a 45 degree wall and well pretty much most terrain that these holds can be bolted on shouldn't cause too much grief for you. We do wish that there were some smaller holds on the same ilk in the range, hopefully they'll be shaped sooner rather than later


Versatility: More than you think
Screw Holes: Yes
These days there is a lot of competition in the hold market, and if you get holds that are sub-par you're probably not going to order from them again; Project Holds are quality, and should probably sell more holds than they do, their lines are getting larger, some simple shapes are coming out and older lines are being updated with more shapes.

From good texture, to nice ergonomic shapes for your hands there's something for you if you want to work on your pinch strength then these are right up your street. The bolt holes are centred and square, the hollow backs need a little work, they could be better and some weight savings could be made if this was sorted out.

Color is always subjective, we like the neon green, some people won't but that's down to your choice.. order whatever color you like... Charles will merrily mix a batch of urethane to suit your needs. Sanding is good across the entire range that we have with nothing to mention other than they're nice and flat

I think the most noticeable thing I found on the Fins from Project is the fact that they are quite slippery. I mean when we got them, brand new, it was simply impossible to stick to them. In order for someone to get through our first route I had to pre-chalk them. Still, I found that after being used a few times over, they were slippery again. Some even got rubber marks from our shoes and then they felt brand new again. At first sight, the Fins seem to have the classic Project texture, a little rough but nothing painful. But then, I was shocked at how much such large pinches must be squeezed to keep my weight up... and I ain't that big! Anywho, they are still a lot of fun to play with (despite the mean, mean setters I hang out with). The colour is bright and lovely... brings out my eyes! (Just Kidding) Point is they look good, the shapes are also nice. Although the actual shapes are inherently unoriginal, the set is fairly big (15 holds) and varied enough in angles and size to allow for a wide variety of moves. If you consider that there is also no 'right side' on most of them, you end up with a high versatility set. You can set a warm-up route with these as easily as you would set a butt kicking impossible one.

Review > Project Holds > Drop

UPDATE: The problems we talk about below have been fixed, by this we mean the set screw placement, texture being uneven and the bolt column should be coming sooner rather than later. Good work Charles, thanks for listening!

If you think of drops as being on the small size, like a drop of water, then you're wrong, this hold is huge, gigantic even;

The Drop shape is a nice big slope, well it's a big big shape and therefore a huge slope :) The point of the drop is to be used as an open hand slope the narrow part of the hold can be used as a pinch. The other side (the top) has a small ridge on the back of the slope that allows you to grab it and stick... the rest of the hold? Oooof good luck!All said hold is huge, and has a lot to offer, so we set it up on the 30 degree wall, the hold has a lot of friction, maybe too much, yup we said it... Project have chucked out a hold that we can actually complain about. Compared to Projects normal texture, which is something you can hang on all day, there are some bobbles on this hold that are just plain sharp! It's like the mold is wrong, the texture on 90% of the hold is the same as you'd expect from their normal line and then the one place you're hitting is sharp and a skin ripper; and it's right where you want to be hitting the hold as well. Sure more friction is always good, but in this case it's something that you hit, hold, and then when you leave the hold wonder where all your skins gone to.

At one point we had our forearms on the hold and we didn't want to slip up on that move (Chris: the couple of time that I did, I lost so much skin that I bled. Not cool). The texture is uneven, there are high points in the texture similar to rough and digs into your skin. Otherwise this hold is like nothing else on the market. You can think of this hold as the Boss from Revolution with out the dimples, but with a rougher texture :(

We've had it for a while and have rotated it all around, keeping the same sequence each time and despite the roughness we've managed to work the routes to completion. There are times where people have come over have seen the holds and it's orientation and have said that the move wasn't ever going to be done, we've proved them wrong on most counts and some of the neigh sayers have finished the same route, the look on their faces was one that should be remembered, they enjoyed the moves... but did complain about (guess what) the texture, and that is the one thing that lets this hold down (for now) of being a must have for a gym.

You'd think that a sloper like this would not find itself on steep terrain but there are certain ways to place the Drop so that it manageable on the 45. Its nice that a big shapes like this can be put pretty much anywhere on our wall. You can easily get two hands on the hold with plenty of room to spare and it give you the option of being able to change the difficulty by rotating the hold a few degrees. On our wall the holds been used as an large tow handed undercut on the box, a slope and pinch (and every other rotation of the hold) on the 30 and on the 45 we were just happy to hit and hold onto it.


Versatility: A slope on the 45? Enough said.
Screw Holes: No

We've always liked Project holds. We've worked closely with Charles, even helping out getting the word out in Canada, and they have some of the coolest looking shapes out there. The Drop is no different. A big bright hold is always welcome on the CHR wall, the hold is fun to climb on and it will spark creativity with any setter.

Our praise stops here. Right away we noticed that the texture of the Drop was much coarser. Its uneven and there are high points, kinda like the pebbles that stick out of sandstone. Being a big slope, the friction is comforting when you're on the hold but if you rip off, you're skin will be in for a ripping as well. Another point: no center column. The bolt hole is subjected to a lot of force and it needs to have support. It may or may not brake over time, we need to test that out, but the bolt hole and the area around it will weaken, the column would help relieve any t nut problems you might have from the hold dropping when a lot of weight is put onto it, mind you, placing a set screw into the hold would also do the same thing.

• No centre column on the bolts, for big shapes this helps
• No pre drilled screw hole.
• Put this hold sideways, grab the tail and watch the spin, a screw would stop this
  
• Texture on the Drop is not symmetrical

Now I love Project Holds, hell I stuffed envelopes for a mail out to Canadian gyms, but I still keep my perspective with what we do over here, and Charles respects that, this hold is sub-par to what I expect (and I mean I), I except the texture to be even on a hold, this not with what we got.

Shape wise the hold is amazing, I love what Jim has shaped, and I like that Friksn clothes have sponsored it (hell they replaced a shirt for me when I destroyed it), more company's should do this! By that I mean sponsor a hold and have great customer service.

Jim is one of the unsung heroes of shaping, he's good and there should be more of his stuff on the market look at the Ghouls, Hurricane, Mutations, and Nixons that are on the Project site, the man deserves some higher praise for making the indoor wall scene more bearable. Whether it's his shaping or the molding... I'd expect the Drop be a shit (yes I said shit) site better than it is. I hope it's remolded to iron out the rough spots because it has the makings to be like the Revolution (P)usher Boss) right now it's close for me, real close but so rosette. That's a hard thing to say, considering I'm such a supporter of one man on his own molding and pouring.... seriously. I love the under dog, but can still stay in perspective (See DPM if you think I'm talking crap).

I want more from Project, the Drop is a wonderful shape, but the intermittent texture, no screw hole and no centre bolt shaft makes it sup par in my book. Sorry!

On a separate note, Jim... hey Jim we've not spoken before. Please make smaller versions of these for home walls, medium and large would be kick ass. Thanks in advance :)
Personally, I've never been 100% satisfied with the texture of Project holds (its been said in past reviews), and this hold put me on the unsatisfied side of that debate. In the past, the Project holds always felt rough, but at the end of the session my fingers didn't burn and minus some callous growth, my skin was OK.

Review > Project Holds > Jugs

If you read the news section a while back you'd have seen this:

It's the jugs from Project Holds, I've been talking with them for a while and now we have a couple of their sets on the wall... we're the first people in Canada to get them as far we we're aware... and from the start as soon as you see the holds you are going to gravitate towards the monsters that are the holds that range from XL1 and the XL2 because they look like huge door handles... and when we say door handles we mean door handles for giants, they're not just big they're plain massive.
Even when you've put these holds down you're going to see that the smalls through medium to large sets are all big enough for anyone to grab onto, some of the holds are a little slim, and would be hard to hold onto on say a roof... but generally you're looking at 2 finger pads or deeper on every hold.What we started with (that's Eve and Noodles climbing at the start of the video) is all of the huge holds across the roof with some intermediates, and then a trail around the wall. This was fun, Eve had trouble with the holding and swinging about that Noodles is used to, but not as much fun as it could have been.



So Noodles decided to reset the entire wall, he took everything off, nothing stayed on the wall... he started with these holds and set a route that rings around the entire wall, but also has a second ring that you can link into that starts on our box feature. Now this is better, you end up with a long traverse / boulder route that means you can get a good burn on... and then to make it even harder than it is, Noodles added quick draws... so now you can clip a short length of rope that hangs around the climbers waist either at a predefined position or when someone shouts "clip", or in the case of the following video at predetermined places!



Either way you put these holds, they're possibly some of the best jugs we've come across, skin friendly and just easy to use, there's not a sharp edge on them and they're nothing but a hoot to climb on. There are alot of holds on the market, and wether you're a gym owner or a homewall owner we suggest you get your hands on some of these, before other jugs that we've mentioned... and that's a hard hard thing to say when you see some of the holds we have. Louie Anderson shaped them, so it's just a case of letting your mind go wild... we'll update when we take these to the gym, because Noodles has some big dyno / brutal toe hook plans for the route he's going to set :P

SUGGESTED USES



Ooooof, without sounding like a broken record you can pretty well put any of the holds from any of the sets... anywhere you wish. Some of the smaller holds are challenging on the roof, but are by no means not doable. If you've got a lot of younger climbers or inexperienced climbers in your gym get these, they're not going to have any trouble getting up to the top, if you want to set some monster all points off dynos then again look no further... with the large holds you'd have to be almost blind to not hit the sweet spots :)

OVERALL BUILD
From the Project Holds logo on the holds, to the little imprinted arrows that tell you which way they should be rotated these holds have excellent build quality. There's a few floors in a couple of the holds but that's from being dinged during shipping, other than that they're superb! The color is a little lack luster from what you see on the website, so we'd suggest that you ask for a real bold color to make these stand out, mind you if you're getting the larger holds it doesn't matter what color they come in as they are totally unique and will make everyone stop and look at them

The texture is hard to describe, it has a very fine sandpaper feel, quite similar to a sandstone texture, it's friendly on the skin, and it needs to be considering how large the gripping area is.
Bolt placements on the smaller holds are nice and centered, and on the larger holds they're supplemented with a screw placement (which you will need to use) to stop the monster handles from spinning!! Everything was flat backed and there wasn't a problem with getting these onto the wall


Here's a break down of the weight of the sets:

• Smalls are 2.5lbs
• Medium 1 are 2.6lbs
• Medium 2 are 2.5lbs
• Large are 4.9lbs
• XL are 19.2lbs
• 2XL is 7.2lbs
  

WHAT IT'S MADE FROM
Urethane... pure urethane. And considering the weight of the box (and the destroyed nature of it when it arrived) it's a strong mix, we were expecting more breaks and dings! We've tried to over tighten the largest hold and go nowhere near to snapping it, if we continued tightening we were going to break the t nut before the hold

RATING
NOODLES SAYS
Getting praise from us is sometimes hard, I've been looking at these holds for a while and it's taken a long time to get them. Project Holds is pretty well unknown in Canada, which is a surprise as they have a good catalogue of holds... but thus far i've not seen any, other than our wall of course :P But I digress, getting praise from us is sometimes fickle, as we see alot of holds and we remain objective in reviewing them... this time it was extra hard because all I wanted to do is stick these on the wall and bounce around all the time, not look at the backs of them, and the color. It took me a while to calm down once I opened the box because even though I'd seen videos and pictures I wasn't quite prepared for what I unwrapped... I honest to god sat there and just looked at the biggest jug and was in awe! It's heavy, sure, but maaan is that thing a big ol ring that just screams DYNO. Soon as Chris turned up I showed him that monster first and polite decorum stops me from printing what he said, to say he was surprised is an understatment... and that's before we get to the Shellshocked that are on the wall, that Wedge shape then sent us is just wild.

Sorry, I'm starting to sound like a teenage girl here.

Surprised? Yes, very
Do I want the entire range of Projects holds now? Yes please
Should you go and buy these holds? I'd lend you the money if I could!

Pure and simple, and whilst still being objective... I've not been blown away by a full set of holds for a long while. The Revolution jibs and the Contact WOTW2 (War of the Worlds 2) are amazing, amazing holds... the Project stuff is in the same league.

CHRIS
And I thought the War of the World's are huge. For these monsters we need a whole new word....gigormous. Say it with me kids...gi-gor-mous. This isn't the first time Louie (in case you're not aware, Louie shapes holds for numerous companies) shapes have arrived at the door, and we couldn't have expected anything like it, we sat there in amazement. When I saw them at first I was skeptical about the one bolt placement on the larger holds, but once its on the wall there is very little give on the hold and on screw is all that's needed to keep it in place.

Now the whole range is great and I'm surprised that Project doesn't have a bigger market share, or that we've not seen them before up here, Noodles gave me another surprise when he told me that it was a small company with Charles running the whole gig, awesome job Charles.

So back to the holds.

I don't want to bore you with how much we love these holds (I think Noodles has done a good job already) so I'll keep it short and objective: They look great, skin friendly and well priced. If you've got the budget, buy the whole range :)

PROS

• Good for any angle... even the small holds are huge
  
• Project have a "larger is better" sizing policy once you get into the XL+ sizes, you get more than you bargained for!!
  
• The large shapes are real eye openers, set a route and people will flock to it
  

CONS

• Full sets are a little heavy, go for economy shipping if you can
  
• Ask for a real good color that has a nice hue, we didn't and although the holds stand out, due to their shape they would be better if they were brighter!!
• Anything above a medium is going to hog your wall space, so if space is tight, stay in the small / medium range! (That being said, the XL's are great on the roof)
  

PRICE

• Small set has 5 holds for $39
• Medium set 1 & 2 is 5 holds for $49
• Large has 5 holds for $69
• The XL is 5 holds for $139
• The monster 2XL is a single hold for $69
  

Review > Project Holds > Shellshocked

Here's the second part of our review on Project holds. Earlier last month we reviewed the Jugs ans they have since been set at our local gym Allez Up. We have a saying that goes "no brand loyalty" and in spite of sounding biased... these holds are SWEET:P And once again, like the Jugs, these holds are like no other that we have on our wall. So we received the full line of Shell Shocks minus the Shell Shocks Large 1. Now we got one more hold from this set, The Wedge is a 6xl and its HUGE!
How huge?? Here's someone holding the monster!It's huge but surprisingly light. They put this beast on a diet by molding it with a hollow back so it only takes one bolt. We had a long session on it with Jackie and Eve and the hold never spun out on us. So Project put it best when they describes the holds as "a new spin on the classic brain texture". Everyone who has gone to the gym knows that holds with this texture can be deceiving but the Shellshocks on the most part have a really good edge on them and they are all quite big. Some of the bigger holds from the set have decent pocket and could be set in the roof. The holds came in green, just like the images on the website, and they stand out on the wall. The texture of the mix is rough on the skin but the bottom line is you stick the hold and the mix gives you plenty of friction.

We've had these holds since last month and we couldn't resist the temptation of putting them up. As I mentioned earlier we had a bunch of sessions on the Wedge and some other holds with Jackie and Eve. Now that we've had some fun with the holds we set a route up with them for the review and to make things interesting, Noodles flipped some of the holds around after every attempt..


It wasn't all falling though, we did get around the route a number of times with the holds having a different rotation each time... the Wedge, again can be deceptive!

The session ended with a small problem with the Wedge, a cross threaded bolt and a new hole in the wall... Noodles wasn't amused (see his comments for the full story)



These holds are big enough to be used on any angle. With the exception of some of the smaller holds and the Wedge they can even be put into the roof but it'll require a hell of a lot of core strength to maneuver around the pinches and Wedge if they're set on steep terrain. We're not even crazy enough to attempt anything like this.

Keep in mind that these holds are categorized as medium to large and on flat or slightly overhanging terrain the holds are easy to match. As per usual the exception is the Wedge. It takes a couple of dry runs to find the sweet spot on the hold but once you know where to hit it, along with some controlled movement, the Wedge tons of fun.



After we had a great session playing around on the Shellshocks I decided to rotate it one more time and to my surprise I had a hard time getting the bolt loose and after fighting with the wrench the bolt started to spin, but it wasn't the bolt that was loose, it was the t-nut spinning into the back of the wall. So we performed some climbing wall surgery and got the Wedge off the wall. When we inspected the hold we came to some conclusion on how things went wrong. First of all the bolt that Project sent us was too long, secondly the t-nut started to bury itself further into the wall each time we re bolted the hold. Louis also brought up a good point in that the bolt hole isn't reinforced so when you over tighten the bolt the hold flexes because the bolt hole doesn't extend all the way to the wall. So after all the fun we had with the holds we had on a bad experience at the end but as an optimist I need to say that at least have an unbiased review.

• A new spin on the Font texture
• Something for everyone in the full line
• Well priced
• Project sizes are larger than you expect, so look at the holds carefully as you may be getting more than you thought!
  

CONS

• The Wedge is huge, and because of the bolt placement / design you could cross thread a t nut / bolt with the torque you put on the hold...
• The colours are not consistent from batch to batch
• Noodles doesn't mind the texture, but I found that my hands lost more skin than usual.
• They could add a small line to the range
  

PRICE
Shellshocked don't come in anything less than a medium!!
Medium 01: $39 for 5 holds (tested)
Large 01 / 02: $49 for 5 holds per set (tested)
X Large o1 / 02: $69 for 5 holds per set (tested)
2xl : $139 for 5 holds (tested)
Apollo: 4xl $79 for one hold
Rhino: 5x1 $99 for one hold
Wedge: 6xl $139 for one hold (kicked our ass when it's rotated!!, but tested)
UFO: 7xl $199 for one hold

Review > Project Holds > Kreases

When you look at holds, and more specifically hold shapers you will generally run into a name that pops up a lot, and not because we mention him a whole bunch, but because he shapes for more companys than you can shake a stick at... Louie Anderson is probably one of the most prolific shapers out there right now, there are company's that have his shapes sitting waiting to be molded, the holds we're looking at are one of the lines he shaped for Project Holds, and there are more sizes being molded and added to this line of shapes as we speak.

The Kreases are going to stand out on your wall, no matter what color you get them in, ours are pink... and it's not the color that makes them stand out, it's the shapes; the holds look like you want to grab them... and you do want to grab them, and then you're going to have to find out where you really want to have your hand, because these holds are hard to read, you think that an area is going to be good until you reach, slap and realize that it's actually not as good as you think :) Sitting somewhere between sharp crimps and gritty slopers the sets offer a fair ammount of variety of hand positions if you use your brain and your body, if you don't you're going to just end up crimping and that's not a bad thing, but as the angle gets steeper the passable edges on the holds start to really bite into your fingers, we know this because after we set some nice travereses on the slight overhang we chucked them onto the 45 to see what would happen!
VIDEO

VIDEO END
As you've seen there was a lot of falling going on, with Noodles eventually getting the send! But that send took two weeks of working on and off, the cross into the pinch is hard enough, moving off of it was just totally hit and miss. If you have keen eyes you'll notice that a couple of the holds change towards the end of the video, why? Because some of the holds are just plain unusable on the steep walls. That being said our local gym got the same holds as us and there are some killer routes up on the vertical to slightly overhung walls, given the nature of the holds these do lend themselves to 5.9+ routes, and some pretty hard bouldering. The holds have seen alot of traffic during the comp (which they were brought for) and after, I've been asking people that I've seen climbing them their overall impressions and most people do like the nature of having to feel for the correct slot on the holds. If you're looking for a set to make people think, with their hands and their feet then you can't really go wrong with these, they are sharp in places, but aslong as you're not dynoing to them then you should be fine.





Well the Creases have some good edges and if you're crazy, strong or stupid enough you could get them on a wall as steep as 45 degrees. Despite the look of the hold, they are crimps and they have the creases which give you a veriety of way to grip the hold so you will use your head well and your grip strength. These holds hit our local gym for a comp (in a different color) and the route that was set was super fun to climb on... infact it's still up! These are best suited for vertical to slight overhanging walls, unless you're a mutant, then get them on the steeps and you can sit at the bottom and look at them, because if you're not in shape, or you get a hand / foot placement wrong you're going to be right back on the mats.. we'd suggest keeping these holds to nothing steeper than 30 degrees over!


What was I thinking with these holds over Xmas? Stick them on the 45? I must be crazy... two weeks of trying to complete the route crazy :) My fingers hurt at the end of it all, but I was happy to get those moves done in one go! Even though the route I set maybe a work of genius (or madness) if has had most people struggling for beta, or in Jacky's case; struggling to get off of the floor. When some people came over during Xmas it was plain to see that these holds on the 45 isn't going to work for anyone that is a low end intermediate climber, the moves were just too powerful; so I set an easy sequence for them and they still struggled (I was skipping holds)
It just proves that if you're buying these holds you're going to have to set for whom you'd like to get up the route! I almost took down the route a number of times as it just seemed like it was going to be too hard to see a send, but Chris urged me to keep it up, and I'm glad I did, my fingers aren't so happy from all the crimping, but then again I suppose it's my own fault for putting them where they are. If you want some decieving holds that are going to make people have to work (and I do mean that) for the send then these should be on your shopping list, if you're looking for some holds for your home woody then again these "could" be for you, but they're not the most friendly in the World (they're also not the worst)
Our first experience with Project was with the Jugs. While going through the catalog, the Kreases really caught my eye, and I was really happy when Noodles put in an order :) A product of slopers and crimps the holds provide a wide variety of grips so you'll have to use you head. We first set a traverse on the 60 degree wall. After we put up the 45, the route got an extension starting in the 45 and ends on the original route. It took us awhile to get the route because the holds hurt and we could only have a couple of go's a session. Despite the pain the holds are fun and we came up with different sequences before finding the right beta. So ideally these holds should be on slight overhangs to slabs but if you're strong enough you could have fun on steeper terrain; I think I prefer long routes in a gym than bouldering on these holds... but that's just me!

JACKY SAYS
Since I'd just got back from HP40 my fingers are similar to a new born babies! So please remember that when you read below:
These holds are the kind that you love to have on a 45 degree wall, I felt awkward on them, but once the sequence clicks in your head you can get through the kind of problems that Noodles sets. Most holds have enough space for two or three finger tips, like any normal crimp; inside the crack it's slippers, with a good texture on the outside. The sizes of the holds are good when they're used on vertical or positive (slab) walls. Slabs are going to end up being super tech, and probably the way Noodles sets painful :)
Most people will find a place to grab the holds, they maybe sharp in places but you'll be able to balance and pull until you go past 45 degrees.