To ensure your Latin dance shoes’ durability and longevity, you need to care for them properly. High-quality Latin dance shoes are an investment and should be protected, cleaned, and taken care of accordingly. In this article, you will find tips and tricks on cleaning and taking care of your dance shoes to make sure they last a long time in your dancing journey.
Although you might be learning popular Latin dance styles such as Salsa, Bachata, Merengue, and others to know how to dance socially, proper care of your dance shoes is necessary, so you don’t end up purchasing a new pair too soon.
Latin dance shoes get worn out after each dance lesson or Latin night out because of the fast turns and spins. The tips and tricks on how to clean Latin dance shoes I will mention below will allow you to maintain a current pair of dance shoes you have so you don’t buy many shoes.
How To Care For Latin Dance Shoes
Once you find a perfect pair of Latin dance shoes, you will want to do everything and anything to keep them in the best shape possible.
Here are quick tips on how to take care of Latin dance shoes to ensure durability and longevity:
- Dance shoes are made for dancing, so make sure that you only use them on the dance floor. Dirt, liquids, dust, and uneven surfaces could break down the suede and the thin sole of dance shoes.
- Brush your sole regularly to keep suede in good shape for many dance events coming up. Regular brushing will revive the sole and also get dirt and dust off your soles.
- Clean your shoes regularly. Further in the article, you will find out how to clean satin and leather dance shoes in more detail.
- Eliminate any odor that comes out of your shoes. You can air dry them after each dance session, apply baking soda or baby powder, or spray alcohol mixed with tea tree oil and water.
- Inspect the heel regularly to make sure there are no damages. You can use heel tip protectors, which are relatively inexpensive.
How To Clean Suede Bottom Dance Shoes
Suede sole has a very soft appearance. Dance shoes should use crone suede for the soles because of their unique characteristics of tractions compared to the slip.
After dance shoes get worn out, they have a shiny, leather-like appearance from the floor’s friction.
To bring the suede sole back to life, you will need a good brush. A good brush should have an easy handle to grab and sharp teeth. Ensure that brush has angled and sharp teeth and flaps to cover the teeth because it will protect your clothing and shoe bag.
To start, make sure to have a firm grip on the brush and hold the shoe tightly by the top where the laces are. For safety reasons, make sure that your fingers are not exposed to the shoe area where you will be brushing because these brushes have sharp needles, and they can easily cut your fingers.
Suede soles with a lot of damage require lots of force, so don’t be afraid to be aggressive with the brush. If you brush the shoe suede sole properly, you will notice that the suede sole will be coming back to life after a few strokes.
The best technique to brush suede sole is to alternate the brush strokes in a criss-cross pattern. You will ensure that you don’t cut deep into the sole if you use this technique.
After brushing for a while, you will notice how suede is slowly returning to its original appearance.
Here is an excellent video by Azucar to show you visually how to brush dance shoes properly.
Click here to check out the brush I would recommend on Amazon.
Pro Tip
If you don’t have a shoe brush handy, you can use coarse sandpaper. If it won’t do an excellent job as shoe brush would do, but it will do the job.
How To Clean Satin Dance Shoes
If you wear your satin dance shoes inside only, it shouldn’t be too hard to clean them.
Satin is a highly delicate material that can be damaged easily, so follow these steps to ensure your satin dance shoes look their best all the time.
- Gently wipe all dust and dirt off of the shoes with a dry cloth. If you don’t wipe down your shoes first, you could rub the dirt even further into your shoes.
- Damp a clean cloth with water and clean any visible dirt spots or stains around the entire heel, making sure to dab instead of rubbing into the fabric.
- Dry satin heels with a dry towel immediately upon cleaning them with a wet towel.
- If plain water didn’t clean your satin dance shoes entirely, then use a little a bit of hand soap to remove more stubborn stains. Add a drop of hand soap into a clean cloth and gently rub the cloth together to form a slight lather.
- If you have to, use soap only on the heel portion of the satin dance shoes. Do not use soap on the soft satin material.
- Remove all the soap residue immediately because soap could stain satin heels.
- Dry the satin heels by dabbing dry and clean cloth into the satin dance shoes’ moist part. If you cannot get all the water out, use a blow dryer on the lowest settings to dry satin fabric.
How To Clean Latin Leather Dance Shoes
Knowing how to clean your leather dance shoes will keep your footwear looking good and preserve the material for many years.
To clean a pair of leather dance shoes, rub the sole and the more rigid leather with a damp paper towel.
It would be best if you polished leather shoes using a leather polish after each use. The cream puts the moisture back into the leather.
Take human skin for an example. People need to moisturize their skin to keep its youthfulness and elasticity.
Make sure to buy the right shade of leather polish. Using the right shade of leather polish will ensure that your shoes look shiny and act as a prevention method against scratches.
Also, do not use water to clean your leather dance shoes because this may cause leather tarnishing.
Can I Wear Latin Dance Shoes Outside
Latin dance shoes are made to be worn on the dance floor, not outdoors. So you shouldn’t wear them outside because they will start to lose the grip that gives you traction on the dance floor.
However, if you look for Latin dance shoes that could be worn outdoors, make sure that you find a manufacturer indicating that the shoes could be worn outside.
I would not advise you to wear dance shoes outside a lot because these shoes are primarily made for dancing, and your best bet would be to save them for the dance floor only so you don’t end up purchasing a new pair soon.
There are many brands out there that you could wear outside for a short period of time. You can check out those dance shoes here. For example, I like to put my shoes on at home, so I don’t have to change them again when I get to the dance lesson. It would be ok for such a short distance because I wear my dance shoes to get to the car and then from my car to dance school, which is only a few steps away.
If you are like me, who uses dance shoes for such a short distance, you should be ok wearing them outside. However, if you expect bad weather, I wouldn’t advise you to put on your dance shoes at home.
Suede is the best material for the flexible sole, and it doesn’t do well if it is exposed to any moisture.
In this case, you can wear your street shoes to the dance studio and then change when you arrive.
How To Clean Smelly Dance Shoes
There are many ways you can clean your smelly dance shoes. Everybody is different in terms of how much our feet sweat. I am one of those “unlucky” ones whose feet sweat.. a lot… So I know how it feels to have smelly shoes due to sweat, especially during hot summer days.
Smelly dance shoes will occur more often for females because we wear our dance shoes barefoot; whereas, men wear sucks with their shoes and absorb some sweat.
It is entirely normal and natural for your feet to sweat, especially during physical activity such as Latin dancing.
Inside of women’s Latin dance shoes is made of suede, which acts up like a sponge and absorbs all the moisture your feet produce. It tends to create bacteria in your shoes that result in an unpleasant smell.
Here are a few tips on how to clean smelly dance shoes:
- Air Dry Your Dance Shoes
It is very important to let your shoes “breath” on the fresh air after each dance lesson or practice. If your shoes’ moisture is left untreated, it creates bacteria that results in a funky smell.
When you get home after dancing, you could take out the dance shoes from the shoe bag and leave them to air dry somewhere not too hot or too cold.
Another option would be to keep the shoes in a breathable shoe bag. However, I would not recommend that because if shoes eventually start to smell, the nasty smell would transfer to any clothes you have in the bag or to the bag itself.
- Baby Powder
I’ve been using this trick for all of my shoes, especially when putting away shoes due to seasonal changes. Adding baby powder to the smelly shoes will eliminate the smell, but it will not eliminate the bacteria. This technique could be used as a temporary smell elimination until you implement something to eradicate the core issue, which is the bacteria.
Make sure to apply the baby powder carefully inside the shoes only because it can leave a white stain if powder spreads outside the shoe.
To apply baby powder inside the shoes, dip a cotton ball into the powder and gently and carefully apply it all over the shoe insides.
- Freeze Your Dance Shoes
Freezing your Latin dance shoes will eliminate the bacteria and odor.
This technique is a bit unusual, but it works because bacteria cannot survive at low temperatures.
Just put your dance shoes in the air-tight back and freeze them overnight.
- Use Alchocol
Put a bit of alcohol in a spray bottle mixed with water and spray a small amount into the shoe. It will eliminate the bacteria growing inside the shoe.
Add a few drops of tea tree oil into alcohol and water mix for optimal results. Also, tea tree oil will reduce the strong alcohol smell.
- Baking soda
Baking soda is very effective in eliminating bacteria and shoe odor. Once you are done with the dance session, add a little bit of baking soda into the shoes to absorb the moisture.
Once you are ready to dance again, just wipe away baking soda with a paper towel, and you are ready to dance away all night long.
Additional Tips On How To Protect Your Latin Dance Shoes
- Purchase heel protector. Heels get damaged the quickest. Purchase a heel protector to extend the life of your heels. Besides extending the life of your heels, the heel protector provides additional traction for security.
- Avoid a moist environment. A humid environment could tarnish your dance shoes. Also, the moist environment allows bacteria to grow inside your shoes, which is the primary reason people have smelly shoes.
- Avoid wearing dance shoes outdoors. Dance shoes are made for dancing and dance floor. The dance shoes can be easily damaged by debris, dirt, and rough surfaces. If you want your shoes to last a long time, do not wear them outdoors.
- Shoe bag. Purchase a breathable shoe bag designated for your shoes only. Please do not put any items in your shoe bag other than shoes because it could damage your shoes and vise versa.
- Use anti-slip powder. The anti-slip powder is a silica-based powder specially made for dancing shoes. The anti-slip powder is used by Latin and Ballroom dancers when they come into contact with a slippery floor. You can apply the powder directly on the shoe sole or the ground and dip your shoes into the powder.
