What Shoes Should I Wear to Go Swing Dancing? – SwingDance.LA

Men’s and women’s vintage-styled shoes at Remix Whenever I invite my non-Swing friends to go Swing dance, one of the most common questions they ask is, “what kind of shoes should I wear?” I ’ ve interviewed my Swing dancing friends and guide from personal feel and observations to provide some answers hera .

Using Your Existing Shoes

If you ’ re going Swing dancing for the first base time or good starting out, possibly you don ’ metric ton want to buy raw shoes precisely for Swing dance fair so far. here are some guidelines on choosing the best shoes to dance in from your existing shoe collection .

For Women

• Avoid high heels or spikey heels. Pick a shoe with flat sole or medium heel that is thick (large diameter).
• Leather soles are best. Avoid rubber – it’s too hard to spin on.
• Avoid sandals or slippers.

For Men

• Similarly, pick shoes with leather soles. Avoid rubber soles (i.e., avoid sneakers, unless they have been modified to have leather soles).
• Men’s leather dress shoes with work fine as long as they don’t have rubber soles.  I like to put Dr. Scholl’s padding inside these type of shoes, since they typically don’t have much padding.

If you don ’ t have any shoes with leather soles, a in truth ghetto direction to make your existing rubber-soled shoes danceable is to put duct tape on the bottoms to make them more slippery. I mention this lone as a last resort. Use at your own risk ! ( I probably shouldn ’ t have even mentioned this .. Please don ’ t blame me if the tape sticks to the shock and you fall ! )

Women’s Swing Dancing Shoes

Okay, let ’ s say you ’ re a spot more entrust and want to get “ veridical ” shoes for Swing dancing. In Los Angeles/Orange County, I would say the de-facto standard casual shoes for women Swing dancers are Keds with chrome leather soles.

When I tell novice Swing dancers to get Keds for Swing dancing, they are like, “ actually ? ? Women wear Keds with dresses ? ” Yes ! It looks cute. Take a look at this screenshot of the Strictly Lindy contest at Camp Hollywood 2014 :
Dance contestants at Camp Hollywood Notice how many women are wearing Keds or Keds-like shoes, circled in whiten !
The problem with Keds, though, is that they come with rubberize soles. so, if you get Keds to dance in, you’ll have to take them to a shoe repair shop and get chrome leather (similar to suede) glued to the bottom of your shoes.  
What is Chrome Leather?
The “ chrome ” refers to Chromium used in the tanning process of the leather. For our purposes, by chrome leather, I mean a soft suede-like leather that is smooth enough to slide and spin on, but not adenine slippery as unvoiced leather. Check out the virgo chrome leather soles on my new sneakers :

Ask your cobbler to show you the material before glueing it on your shoes sol that you can make certain he is using the correct stuff .
A draw of Swing dancers have their favored shoe repair places that can glue chrome leather to the bottom of their shoes. Prices vary. I ’ ve learn of non-shoe-professionals offering the service for a little as $ 10, but people have told me that you get what you pay for. The soles finally fall off. I ’ ve never had the soles come off when I ’ ve gone to a professional brake shoe store. In Santa Monica, the shoe stores I ’ ve looked at load $ 30 to $ 40. I ’ ve hear of other horseshoe stores charging deoxyadenosine monophosphate little as $ 20 though .
An alternate to using a cobbler is to use stick-on soles. I can not vouch for these myself, but you can try them at www.soles2dance.com .
You should know that some dance shoe suppliers have started to offer Keds-like shoes with dance soles already built-in! The overall cost and fuss of getting these is much less than getting Keds and getting them chromed. Check out dancestore.com for some good examples of these. many dancers have recommended this on-line store as a dependable source for dance shoes .

What About More Formal Women’s Dance Shoes?

Keds are very well for free-and-easy venues like LindyGroove, PBDA, Rusty ’ second, Atomic, and so forth. But if you ’ re going to Clifton ’ second or the Cicada Club, you ’ ll want to wear something more formal. besides, many instructors and veteran dancers ( particularly Balboa dancers ) prefer more ball shoes with a morsel of heel. A short or medium heel is all right for dancing, arsenic long as the heel is wide and not besides spikey .
In L.A., follows tell me that Remix Classic Vintage Footwear has the best-looking and most comfortable shoes for Swing dancing. Their “ Balboa ” model is a good exemplar, and it is their best-selling model. One commenter told me they “ fit like a baseball glove ” .
“The Balboa”, a best-selling shoe for dancers at Remix Vintage Shoes Remix took real number vintage designs and had them reverse-engineered in arrange to manufacture them accurately nowadays, so they are very stylish. Basically, they look and feel great for Swing dancing. Note that these are much more expensive than Keds ( around $ 200 a match ), but the choice is good .
There’s a huge selection of great vintage dance shoes at Remix You can besides check out Pinup Girl Clothing. Dancestore.com has its interpretation of “ The Balboa ” with a T-strap .
If you ’ re interested in something a bit different, check out the moo boots and early shoes made specifically for Swing dancing from Swivells, based in Paris ! Yes, they ’ re in France, but at least 5 % of their orders go to customers in Los Angeles, so you ’ ll be in good company .
Charlie Stone is another on-line shoe retailer ( based in Australia ) specializing in women ’ sulfur Swing dance shoes .
Worldtone Dance sells dance shoes catering to New York dance professionals .
If you ’ re on a budget, you can besides find beneficial vintage shoes on eBay and at thrift shops, if you know what to look for.

For more stores that carry vintage-style shoes, check out my article on vintage invest for Swing dance or this summary :

Swing Dancing Shoes for Men

The site is a sting easier for men ’ mho shoes. Basically, almost anything with a leather sole will work, at least initially. On top of that, pick something that is comfortable and fits your style. Stacy Adams offers some dress shoes that fit the Swing vogue .
For dedicated dance shoes, Dancestore.com and Remix are big sources for men ’ s dance shoes. USA Dance Shoes offers men ’ randomness shoes for ballroom and salsa, but they can be used for Swing ( unlike women ’ sulfur Salsa shoes ) .
For high-end shoes, check out Ace Marks. Yes, these run $ 300 a couple or more, but they are handmade in Italy from high-quality genuine leather. But most importantly, they look big ! Take a look at their wingtips and Oxford cap toe shoes. Although they might seem expensive, they are actually a great prize and will concluding a long time .
The leaders who dance “ Hollywood Style ” in L.A. tend to wear lighter-colored shoes, like beige or egg white. differently, black or brown shoes are fine for Swing dancing .
here are some of the shoes I dance in. From left to right, we have sneakers with chrome leather soles added, Aris Allens, custom-made dance shoes from the UK I ordered at a dance camp, and regular dress shoes with air-pillow insoles :

For the most ease, you can get a pair of sneakers ( i.e., Vans or Converse type of shoes ), and good get them chromed by a deep-dish pie or try stick-on ones at www.soles2dance.com. Those will be much more comfortable than dress shoes. As is the shell with women ’ randomness shoes, the dance shoemakers are offering men ’ south dance sneakers with leather soles built-in, for much less total cost and less fuss than buying sneakers and getting them chromed yourself. Check out Dancestore.com .
Worldtone Dance sells men ’ s and women ’ randomness dance shoes catering to New York dance professionals .

Check Out This Summary of Dance Shoe Stores

The Best Place to Get Dance Shoes

Online stores are big if you know your size, but many of the stores are oversea and might have expensive transport and long lead times .
The best position to find dance shoes is at local anesthetic dance and vintage events, such as Camp Hollywood or Dapper Day at Disneyland. These events have vendors that come from all around the country or evening the worldly concern. You can try sizes and order right there .

Shoes for Dancing Outdoors

Okay, all of the shoes that I ’ ve covered so far are for dancing indoors on decent wood dance floors. But, there are enough of occasions where you ’ ll want to dance outside or at some Lindy Bomb on roughly surfaces like concrete .
good, you won’t want to wear your nice chrome-leather-soled shoes outside. You ’ ll grind them down and wear them out cursorily. And, decidedly don’t get them wet. That ’ s why many dancers wear street shoes outside and change them when they get to the dance floor .
thus, what do you wear for outdoor dance ? The answer is : shoes with hard leather soles or very hard rubber/plastic soles. Dress shoes work well for this ( although they frequently have very little pad, therefore put in air-pillow insoles or whatever ). I besides had a match of sneakers re-done with extremely hard rubber soles that work well for dancing on cementum. Ask your local anesthetic brake shoe repair denounce what is available. For outdoor dancing, you want a hard sole.
You may have heard of a trade name of dance sneakers called Fuegos. In our experience, Fuegos are not in truth optimized for spouse dances like Lindy Hop. On sidewalk concrete, they don ’ thyroxine turn any better than regular sneakers. On smooth concrete, like in a garage, they ’ ra OK, but I don ’ thyroxine actually recommend them .

Styles to Avoid

finally, here are a few dance shoe styles that I would avoid ( just my personal opinions here ) :

• Super sparkly/gaudy shoes: Some Swing dancers can pull this off (especially in contests), but these types of shoes are more suitable for ballroom than Swing, in general.
• Salsa shoes: Many of these have high heels which won’t work for Swing.

If you are a founder Swing dancer, I hope this flying usher has helped ! There are many more possibilities, but I ’ ve tried to keep things bare. You should besides ask your boyfriend Swing dancers and instructors for advice on shoes. There are folks who know army for the liberation of rwanda more than I do about dance shoes. Ladies, check out this Facebook Group started by Lindy Loft wholly devoted to Swing dance shoes for women !
besides, be sure to check out shoe and clothing vendors when you go to Swing camps like Camp Hollywood.

If you have any more tips on where to get dance shoes, good shoe rectify places, or anything associate, please leave a comment below ! What are YOUR front-runner Swing dance shoes ? Where did you get them ? – Brian

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Category : Fashion