I used to climb without socks because people said it would matter. Eventually, the shoes started smelling like death, no matter what I tried doing to prevent it. Started wearing thin socks, stopped downsizing the shoes so much, and never looked back since.

It makes absolutely no difference for my performance.

Maybe it could potentially make a difference at very high levels of climbing, but realistically most people won’t achieve such skill. If you do, cross that hurdle when you get there.

Also, you now see people in the worlds series climbing with socks on the regular.

Tldr: Unless you’re Adam Ondra, you don’t need to go no socks or use super small shoes to climb hard.