I've been on the indoor ones, they're really fun. I don't see why people would want to wear shoes or gloves, I'd be too worried about slipping and falling. Wear shoes if you have to and go there alot. I'm sure that after a while they'll let the shoes off.
I taught at a summer school a year ago; and at the start of the summer hols took a group to a sports science centre where they had an indoor climbing wall. One of my students promptly disposed of his sandals so that he could do all the sports stuff barefoot. We both did the wall barefoot which was cool; it was good being able to grip the holds, but some were quite slippy. My student did better than me - being a 12 year old he had the advantage of light weight, and in his case a large big toe which could grip the holds better than my toes and had a vice like grip ! nobody asked us put on shoes which was good, I had pretty tough feet, he goes barefoot at home and has natural awesome thick pads which were pretty tough at the start of the summer and I am sure they would have put my feet to shame by the end !
I climb a lot at the gym, adn the shoes help you grip the holds...so, it's good to wear the shoes! Although, they are pretty uncomfortable if you leave them on while your not climbing, so I always take them off right after I come down!
I work at a wall, and a lot of the rules aree just for liability. It sucks, but theres not a whole you can do. Anyway, the special rock shoes actually help you climb becuase they have sticky rubber soles. Give it a shot. Peace
every carnival ive been too, including the county fairs that come for like a few weeks at a time, ive gone barefoot, but i dont climb.. heights bother me.
