Bouldering mat

[1] Modern bouldering mats are made in a wide range of sizes and styles (and colors) and can be up to 8–15 centimetres (3–6 in) in thickness, and up to 1 by 2 metres (3 by 7 ft) in surface area (at the larger end).

[3][4] Some mats also include pockets for storage or straps that allow climbers to turn the pad into a day-pack with their bouldering gear stuffed inside the folds.

[9] In 2023, Austrian climber Bernd Zangerl [fr] wrote in Climbing regarding the use of excess bouldering mats, "Today, we see landing zones resembling construction sites", and adding: "...

[6] In a 2022 interview with Climbing, Sherman credited El Paso-based boulder climbers, Donny Hardin and Fred Nakovic, for the original idea "after a heel-bruising session not at Hueco, but City of Rocks, New Mexico".

[6] In 1992, Sherman and Bruce Pottenger, from Bishop-based climbing gear manufacturer Kinnaloa, designed the first commercially available bouldering mat/crashpad with the "nylon sleeve, carrying straps, dual-density replaceable foam" that would become the standard design in bouldering, which they sold as the "Kinnaloa Sketchpad" ('sketchpad' was a slang used in the area for prototype/cumtomized mats).