First off, Let me say, I LOVE these sticks. They really bite. But there are some caveats to that. I just came home from my first run with my new beast sticks. The first mishap I had was on my second stick up. I was wearing my Nike sneakers (this could have been the problem). with my right foot on the top step, when I lifted my left foot up, the sole of my shoe was embedded in the tread of the stick and this lifted the bottom cleat. I wasn't sur what had happened, but when I put that foot back down the bottom had kicked out and I went down a little bit, enough that my chest scraped the step from the stick above. Those steps are sharp. I have a nice cut on my chest. So my take-aways from this experience, first, wear boots. I thinks the soles of boots will stand up to the aggressive tread of the steps. Second, wear gloves. I was equally hard on the hands to hold the step to seat the cleats into the tree. This was a learning experience and I LOVE this sticks. This is an awesome product.