Men's Salsa dress shoes which can be worn on the street?

M

maxplanck

Hi everyone! I've decided to take a class and learn how to salsa. I've been browsing this forum and have learned much from what you've posted. Thanks!

I'd like to find a pair of men's dress shoes which can be worn on the street and on the dance floor. Do you know of any shoes which fit the bill?

I've been researching online, and what I've read seems to indicate that shoes with a hard leather sole are the best compromise for dual dance/street wear.. Does that sound right?


Can you recommend any particular shoe? I'm hoping to find a pair that are black, and which can pass for ordinary men's dress shoes.

I would feel silly as a complete beginner wearing a shoe that looks pro, changing shoes before I get on the dance floor, etc..
 
I found a pair of shoes that had a flat bottom that was like leather but not as slippery. Those served me well the first few months. I still use them when I go to certain clubs that aren't super salsa focused. I bought them at Zara. I suggest just going to a shoe store and looking at the bottoms and trying to spin on them in the store. So long as they are not rubber and do not have too much texture, they should be fine.

p.s. Oh, and welcome to the salsaforums!

p.p.s. I'd watch out for dress shoes that have a long tip. It's very hard to dance in those but I keep seeing people do it. You can probably get used to it but I wouldn't recommend it.
 
i use a pair from Shine Dancewear that has a plastic/hard rubber like sole that can be worn on the street and for dancing (doesn't seem to be on their website). not sure what they're called. because of the sole, there's no need to brush them. they're light and look mostly like jazz shoes in that they're form fitting and flexible but at the same time they look like actual street shoes. the only thing is that you have to break them in as they're quite sticky when new. i wouldn't recommend wearing them out in the street as they are dancing shoes after all. you also wouldn't want to bring dirt and other stuff from the street onto any dancefloor.
 
Bleyer makes dance shoes which have rubber sole and can be worn on the street

Aris Allen makes excellent and good loking shoes which have sole of hard leather. Whose can be worn on the street when weather is dry.
 
petteri said:
Aris Allen makes excellent and good loking shoes which have sole of hard leather. Whose can be worn on the street when weather is dry.
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That will be good for about 2 months/year here.:)

I've found Pumas that are good for dancing and fine outside, but they're not dress shoes.
 
maxplanck said:
I would feel silly as a complete beginner wearing a shoe that looks pro, changing shoes before I get on the dance floor, etc..
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Don't worry about that, anyone judging you on mere shoes isn't worth worrying about! You don't have to worry about them for a few months, but at six months you'd be crazy to be without them. You won't be a complete beginner for very long, so they'll be a good investment.
 
I have been wearing a leather soled dance shoe from Capezio for 10 years. I think they are these: Capezio® Men's Oxford (Style 445).

They work on the street and on the dance floor. However, you need to be careful about matching shoes with a dance floor. If you are dancing on a professional wood floor or tile then leather shoes will be too slippery. If you get the leather soles wet in the rain then they won't be much better than suede soles.
 
Thanks everyone for your kind replies

I found this pair of leather bottom shoes in my closet, but they have a black rubber section on the heels.. Probably OK for starters though, right?
 

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maxplanck said:
Thanks everyone for your kind replies

I found this pair of leather bottom shoes in my closet, but they have a black rubber section on the heels.. Probably OK for starters though, right?
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Those will work. I don't think I've seen a pair of leather shoes that have the leather on the bottom by the heel. It's usually another type of material. Since you'll be pivoting and, later on, spinning, on the balls of your feet the leather up front on those shoes will work just fine for you.
 
Don't like carrying shoes either

When I started getting serious about salsa I bought several pairs of Stacy Adams shoes from ShoeBuy. They are lightweight, thin leather soles and about half-inch rubber heels at a very reasonable price. They have a lot of really stylish looking shoes. I have probably five pairs. I have worn 2 different pair about 95% of the time and they lasted a good three years before needing soles. I generally only wear them when I go out dancing but they would make nice dress shoes also. The main thing is make sure you get leather soles. I bought a pair that had some kind of synthetic sole; they were heavy. smelled bad, and marked up the floor.
 
anything with a leather bottom will get the job done. just make sure the shoe itself isn't heavy and has some flex to them.
 
There are lots of brand from where you can buy mens dress shoes for your salsa practice...... but it depends how much money you want to spend. So its better search on Google so you can find best one as per need......
 
Usually Kenneth Cole shoes with smooth hard sole and heal are the best for dancing in all environments while looking good too. Some Steve Maddens are good too.
 
Voodoo said:
Usually Kenneth Cole shoes with smooth hard sole and heal are the best for dancing in all environments while looking good too. Some Steve Maddens are good too.
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You can get real dance shoes for cheaper and they'll be better to dance in.
 
azzey said:
You can get real dance shoes for cheaper and they'll be better to dance in.
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I guess it depends what region of the world you live in. Real quality dance shoes locally in the Canadian marketplace can be expensive, I wouldn't want to wear those outside of a clean dance studio. Some Kenneth Cole shoes that are fit for dancing are around MSRP $120, and can go on sale sometimes around $60-$80. You can wear them anywhere (casual use) and are reasonably durable. Real quality dancing shoes are $100-$150, I personally would not recommend wearing these outside of a studio since they might get destroyed easily, and people you can't really wear them when not dancing. You do get what you pay for in terms of dancing performance, for hardcore enthusiasts it's a no brainer. For casual dancers I recommend a shoe that is versatile and can worn outside of dancing.

There are cheaper eBay options but I wouldn't want to wear them outside of a studio because they were not built for outdoor use and they don't look good. Also I personally don't like bringing another pair of shoes to change all the time in a non-studio event.
 
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