Caring for Your Dance Shoes

The first thing a lot of people will tell you about caring for your dance shoes is, never wear them anywhere other than a clean dance floor. Frankly, I’m usually not that precious about my shoes, and have worn them in some pretty gnarly places. You may, however, want to dedicate a pair for outdoor events and sticky nightclub floors, and reserve the others for more pristine environments.

Caring for your dance shoes properly will help you get the most out of them.

Maintenance

Regardless of the surfaces you frequent, you will occasionally need to refresh the sued on the soles. Giving them a few swipes with a stiff wire brush is usually enough to rough up the surface and restore traction. If you’ve treated your shoes especially egregiously (think beer-soaked honky-tonk floor), you can take them to a shoe repair shop and have them run over a grindstone, and they’ll look like new. That will wear out the soles quicker though, so use it only if they’re irredeemably matted and slick. And when the soles do wear out completely, that same shop can replace or recover them to give you a few more miles.

Heel tips also experience a lot of wear and tear and may wear out long before the rest of the shoe. Fortunately, it is relatively inexpensive to have them replaced, and even cheaper if you learn to do it yourself. Alternately, if you don’t mind the look of them, you can use heel caps to protect the tips. Either way, if you plan to wear a long dress or flowing pants, you should use an emery board to smooth any sharp burrs on the edges of the heel prior to dancing in order to avoid getting your heel caught in the fabric.

Wire Brush | Heel Tips | Heel Caps

Storage

Dance shoes usually come with a simple cloth drawstring bag. I’ve always found that to be sufficient, but there are a couple of extras you might want, especially if you’ve invested in high-end shoes. Adjustable shoe trees fit inside the shoes and help them maintain their shape. They come in a variety of materials, but ones made of cedar also absorb odor and repel pests. Shoe boxes offer more protection than cloth sacks, and clear stackable versions might be worthwhile if you have several pairs and want to be able to spot them easily. Large empty lettuce boxes work well too if you want to save money and aren’t too fastidious about appearances.

Shoe Bag | Shoe Trees | Shoe Boxes

Cleaning

A simple shoe-shine kit will contain almost everything you need to keep your shoes looking good. You can periodically touch up any scratches on leather shoes with shoe polish, and when necessary, clean them with a soft cloth and saddle soap. Suede shoes will need to be buffed with a soft brush regularly to remove dirt and maintain the nap. Satin shoes are very hard to keep clean. Your best bet is probably a Mr. Clean Magic Eraser, which also works for spot cleaning leather and vegan leather.

Basic Shoe Shine Kit | Magic Eraser

Ultimately caring for your dance shoes is not a big deal, and you shouldn’t let it stress you out. Do the best you can and don’t worry about the inevitable scuffs they’ll acquire. Shoes that are starting to look a little seedy are a sign that you’re dancing a lot, and that’s a good thing!

Caring for your dance shoes won’t make them last forever, and that’s okay. 😉

Update

One of our students recently shared a method for cleaning satin shoes that she found on the Bella Belle website, and based on her before and after photo, I’d say it’s a winner.

You can save your satin shoes!

And if you want to see real people dancing in the wild, then our Gallery blog is just the inspiration you need.

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