Privacy Policy

What Information Five Ten Shoes Collects

We gather information to help you find the right mountain bike shoes and climbing footwear for your riding style and terrain. The data we collect falls into three categories:

Information you share directly: When you subscribe to our newsletter or reach out through our contact form, you provide your email address and any details you choose to include in your message. If you ask about specific shoe models — whether you’re comparing the Freerider Pro’s flat-pedal grip to the Hellcat Pro’s clipless efficiency — that conversation context helps us respond with relevant guidance.

Information collected automatically: Like most websites, we track device type, browser version, IP address, and which pages you visit. If you spend time on our Trailcross GTX review or our guide comparing BOA closures to traditional laces, that browsing pattern tells us which topics matter most to riders researching Five Ten footwear.

Information from third parties: As an Amazon Associate, we earn from qualifying purchases when you click our affiliate links. Amazon shares limited data about those transactions — enough to credit the referral, but not your personal purchase details. We also use Google Analytics to understand aggregate traffic patterns across our mountain bike shoe reviews and climbing shoe sizing guides.

How We Use Your Information

Every piece of data we collect serves a specific purpose tied to helping you choose the right Five Ten footwear:

• Delivering our newsletter: If you subscribe, we send periodic updates about new shoe releases, comparison guides between models like the Kirigami and Hiangle Pro, and seasonal recommendations for trail conditions.
• Responding to your questions: When you contact us asking whether the Anasazi VCS or the Anasazi Lace fits your climbing style better, we use your email to reply with personalized guidance.
• Improving our content: Traffic data shows us which mountain bike shoe categories get the most attention — men’s MTB flats vs. women’s clipless options, approach shoes vs. pure climbing models — so we can expand coverage where riders need it most.
• Maintaining site security: IP addresses and device logs help us identify and block malicious activity that could compromise the site or your browsing experience.
• Complying with legal obligations: If required by law, we retain records to respond to valid legal requests from authorities in the United States.

We do not sell your email address or browsing history to third parties. We do not use your data to build advertising profiles unrelated to Five Ten mountain bike and climbing footwear.

Cookies and Tracking on Five Ten Shoes

Our site uses cookies — small text files stored in your browser — to remember your preferences and measure how visitors interact with our shoe guides and reviews.

Essential cookies: These keep the site functional. For example, if you dismiss a newsletter signup popup, a cookie remembers that choice so we don’t show it again on every page.

Analytics cookies: Google Analytics tracks anonymized visitor data — which pages get the most views, how long readers spend on our Freerider Pro review vs. our Guide Tennie approach shoe breakdown, and which search terms bring riders to our site. This helps us prioritize content updates and spot technical issues like slow-loading pages.

Affiliate tracking cookies: When you click an Amazon link from our site, a cookie tags that session so we receive credit if you purchase a pair of Five Ten Trailcross shoes or Hellcat clipless pedals within Amazon’s attribution window. This tracking happens on Amazon’s domain, not ours, and follows Amazon’s privacy practices.

Managing your cookie preferences: Most browsers let you block or delete cookies through their settings menu. Blocking essential cookies may break site functionality (you might see the newsletter popup repeatedly). Blocking analytics cookies won’t affect your browsing, but it limits our ability to improve the site based on visitor behavior. Blocking affiliate cookies doesn’t stop you from buying Five Ten shoes on Amazon — it just means we won’t receive commission credit for the referral.

How Five Ten Shoes Shares Your Information

We don’t hand over your email or browsing data to unrelated third parties. When we do share information, it falls into these limited categories:

Service providers we trust: Our email newsletter platform (like Mailchimp or ConvertKit) stores subscriber addresses and sends our updates about new Five Ten shoe releases and buying guides. Our web host stores the site files and visitor logs. Google Analytics processes traffic data. Each provider operates under a contract that restricts how they can use your data — they work for us, not the other way around.

Amazon as our affiliate partner: When you click through to buy the Freerider DLX or Anasazi Moccasym, Amazon knows the referral came from our site, but we don’t send them your email address or personal details — they already have that from your Amazon account if you’re logged in.

Legal requirements: If a court order, subpoena, or valid government request compels us to disclose information, we comply with United States law. We’d narrow the response to only what’s legally required and, where permitted, notify affected users unless prohibited by the order itself.

Business transfers: If Five Ten Shoes (the website) were ever sold or merged with another entity, your data would transfer to the new owner under the same privacy terms, or you’d be notified if those terms changed materially.

No scenario above involves selling your data to advertisers or data brokers. We don’t monetize your information — we monetize affiliate commissions when you choose to buy Five Ten footwear through our links.

How We Protect Your Data

We take reasonable precautions to secure the information you share and the data we collect automatically:

• HTTPS encryption: All traffic to and from fiveten-shoes.com travels over an encrypted connection, so third parties can’t intercept your browsing activity or form submissions in transit.
• Limited access: Only essential personnel (site administrators and email platform managers) can access subscriber lists or contact form messages. We don’t grant access casually.
• Regular updates: We keep our web host’s software, WordPress core, and plugins current to patch known vulnerabilities that hackers could exploit.
• No unnecessary data retention: We don’t stockpile old contact form messages indefinitely. Once we’ve responded to your question about whether the Kestrel BOA’s closure system suits your foot shape, we have no reason to archive that conversation forever.

That said, no online platform is invulnerable. If a breach occurred despite our safeguards, we’d notify affected users promptly and take immediate steps to contain the issue and prevent recurrence.

Your Rights Regarding Five Ten Shoes Data

Depending on where you live, privacy laws grant you specific rights over the information we hold. Here’s how those rights apply to our site:

For all visitors:

• Access: You can request a copy of any personal data we’ve collected about you — typically just your email if you subscribed, or any message you sent through our contact form.
• Correction: If your email address changed or we recorded something incorrectly, let us know and we’ll update it.
• Deletion: Ask us to remove your email from our subscriber list or delete an old contact form message, and we’ll comply unless we’re legally required to retain it (rare, but possible in cases like pending litigation).

For visitors in the European Union (GDPR): You have the right to object to data processing, request data portability (we’ll send you a file of your subscriber info in a standard format), and lodge a complaint with your national data protection authority if you believe we’ve mishandled your information. The legal basis for processing your data is either your explicit consent (newsletter signup) or our legitimate interest in operating an affiliate content site about Five Ten mountain bike and climbing shoes.

For California residents (CCPA / CPRA): You can request disclosure of what personal information we’ve collected, the categories of sources, our business purpose for collecting it, and whether we’ve sold or shared it (we haven’t). You can also request deletion and opt out of any future sale (not applicable here, since we don’t sell data). California residents have the right not to receive discriminatory treatment for exercising these rights — we won’t cut off your access to our Freerider Pro buying guide just because you asked to be removed from our email list.

For residents of Virginia (VCDPA), Colorado (CPA), Connecticut (CTDPA), and Utah (UCPA): You can confirm whether we’re processing your personal data, access that data, request corrections, request deletion, obtain a portable copy, and opt out of targeted advertising or profiling (neither of which we do). If we deny your request, you have the right to appeal that decision.

How to exercise these rights: Email us at the address listed in the Contact Us section below. Specify which right you’re invoking and which data you’re asking about. We’ll respond within 30–45 days depending on request complexity and the applicable law. We may ask for verification (like confirming your email address) to ensure we’re disclosing data to the right person.

Children’s Privacy and Five Ten Shoes

Our website isn’t designed for children under 13. We don’t knowingly collect personal information from kids — no newsletter signups, no contact form submissions, no tracking tailored to minors. If you’re a parent and you discover your child provided us with their email address without your permission, contact us immediately and we’ll delete it from our records. This aligns with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), the United States federal law governing online data collection from minors.

Mountain biking and rock climbing are activities many families enjoy together, and teenagers often research gear on their own. If you’re under 18, ask a parent or guardian before signing up for our newsletter or sending us a message about which Five Ten shoes suit your riding style.

Third-Party Links on Five Ten Shoes

Our site links to Amazon product pages for shoes like the Trailcross LT, the Guide Tennie Pro GTX, and the Hiangle Pro climbing shoe. Once you click through, you’re on Amazon’s domain, governed by Amazon’s privacy policy — not ours. We also occasionally reference manufacturer pages (Adidas owns the Five Ten brand) or industry resources like Pinkbike and climbing forums. We don’t control those sites’ data practices.

Before you share personal information on any third-party site, review their privacy policy. If Amazon asks for your payment details or shipping address, that transaction is between you and Amazon. If a forum asks you to create an account, that’s governed by the forum’s terms, not ours.

International Data Transfers

Five Ten Shoes operates from the United States. If you’re visiting from the European Union, Canada, Australia, or anywhere outside the U.S., your information is transferred to and stored on servers located in the United States, where data protection laws may differ from those in your home country.

For EU visitors, we rely on standard contractual clauses approved by the European Commission when working with service providers (like our email platform or web host) that process your data. These clauses ensure your information receives adequate protection even when it crosses borders. If you’re in the EU and concerned about this transfer, you can exercise your GDPR rights (see Section 06) or choose not to subscribe to our newsletter — browsing our Five Ten shoe guides and reviews doesn’t require you to share personal data.

How Long Five Ten Shoes Retains Your Data

We keep your information only as long as it serves a legitimate purpose:

• Newsletter subscribers: We retain your email address until you unsubscribe. After you opt out, we remove you from the active list within 48 hours (some platforms keep a suppression record to prevent accidental re-adds, but that’s not active marketing use).
• Contact form messages: We typically delete inquiries within 90 days after resolving them. If you asked whether the Sleuth DLX or Freerider DLX handles muddy Pacific Northwest trails better, we don’t need that conversation archived forever once we’ve answered.
• Analytics data: Google Analytics retains visitor data for 26 months by default, then auto-deletes it. We don’t extend that window.
• Server logs: Our web host keeps access logs (IP addresses, page requests) for 30–90 days to troubleshoot technical issues and identify security threats, then purges them.

If a legal hold or regulatory investigation requires us to freeze deletion timelines, we’ll comply with that obligation — but once it’s lifted, normal retention limits resume.

Email Communications from Five Ten Shoes

If you subscribe to our newsletter, you’ll receive periodic updates — typically no more than twice a month — covering new Five Ten shoe releases (like updated colorways of the Freerider Pro or a restock of the Anasazi VCS), seasonal buying guides (winter trail shoes vs. summer breathable models), and deep-dives into topics like BOA closure systems vs. traditional laces or flat-pedal grip compounds.

Every email includes an unsubscribe link in the footer. Click it, and you’re off the list — no questions asked, no “are you sure?” guilt trips. We don’t re-add you unless you explicitly sign up again through the form on our site.

We don’t send individual promotional emails outside the newsletter cadence. If you contact us with a question about whether the Hellcat Pro’s clipless platform suits your pedal stroke, our reply addresses your specific question — it’s not a marketing pitch in disguise.

Do Not Track Signals

Some browsers offer a “Do Not Track” (DNT) setting that sends a signal requesting websites not track your activity. There’s no universal standard for how sites should respond to DNT signals, and we currently don’t alter our data collection practices when we detect a DNT flag from your browser.

That said, our baseline tracking is already minimal: Google Analytics for aggregate traffic patterns and Amazon affiliate cookies for commission attribution. If you want more control, block third-party cookies in your browser settings or use a privacy-focused browser like Firefox with Enhanced Tracking Protection enabled. Those tools prevent Amazon and Google from tracking you across other sites, though they don’t stop our first-party analytics (which only measure activity on fiveten-shoes.com itself).

Changes to This Privacy Policy

We may update this policy as our site evolves or as privacy laws change. If we make material changes — like adding a new category of data collection or sharing information with a new type of third party — we’ll notify newsletter subscribers via email and post a prominent notice on the site for 30 days.

Non-material changes (like clarifying existing language or adding examples) won’t trigger a notification, but we’ll always update the “Last Updated” date at the top of this page. If you’re concerned about privacy, check back periodically — or subscribe to our newsletter, where we’d announce significant policy shifts.

Continued use of fiveten-shoes.com after we post an updated policy means you accept the new terms. If you disagree with a change, unsubscribe from our newsletter and stop visiting the site — those are your only remedies under this policy, though you retain any legal rights granted by GDPR, CCPA, or other applicable laws.

Contact Us About Privacy

If you have questions about this privacy policy, want to exercise your data rights, or need to report a concern, reach out to us:

For privacy-specific requests (access, deletion, correction, opt-out), email us at privacy@fiveten-shoes.com. Include “Privacy Request” in the subject line and specify which right you’re exercising. We’ll respond within 30–45 days depending on the complexity and applicable law.

For general inquiries about our shoe guides, newsletter, or affiliate recommendations, use the contact form on our site or email hello@fiveten-shoes.com.

We’re committed to transparency about how we handle your data. If something in this policy is unclear or you believe we’ve fallen short of our commitments, let us know — we take these obligations seriously and we’ll work to make it right.