How to clean dance shoes and toe pads

Studio floors are dirty and your feet sweat, so your dance shoes are probably a little less spiffy than the day you pulled them out of the box.  Unfortunately, most dance shoes cannot be washed by throwing them in the washing machine.  In this post I will give you some tips on how to keep your dance shoes fresh.

--Any shoe with a suede sole (including ballet, pointe, ballroom, and some jazz shoes and sneakers) can be brushed with a suede brush (you can also use a pet brush with wire bristles).  Use short strokes to brush any dirt or gunk out of the suede.  Go from various directions to make sure you get everything.

--Shoes with hard leather, hard foam/rubber, or taps on the soles can be cleaned with a damp paper towel.  Water alone will get most of the dirt, but windex or hand sanitizer on a paper towel can be used to get more stubborn dirt and stains.

--Hard structured shoes with leather uppers (like tap shoes or oxford ballroom shoes) can be cleaned with leather cleaner and polished with shoe polish.  Be aware that shoe polish can mark floors.  Shoes with imitation leather uppers do not take leather cleaner or shoe polish, so make sure you know what the shoe is made of before you try to clean it.  Imitation leather shoes (including "patent leather" kids tap shoes) are best cleaned with a damp paper towel.

--Soft leather or imitation leather shoes like ballet or jazz shoes are best cleaned with a damp paper towel.  Just lightly scrub on areas that are dirty.  Do not get the shoe too wet, as leather shrinks when it is wet.  Note that areas of the shoe where the color or finish is rubbed off may look dirty, but will not come clean when wiped.  To get a completely clean shoe, you will have to buy a new pair.

--Canvas ballet shoes and pointe shoes can be cleaned in the same way (with a damp paper towel).  Do not put fabric shoes in the washing machine unless you are ok with shrinking them.  Never get a pointe shoe wet; this will ruin the shoe and change the shape of the toe box, making it unusable.

--All dance shoes can be cleaned inside with antibacterial spray (but be careful not to get pointe shoes too damp).  Talcum powder (especially powders with nice scents) work well too, but they show up on dark interiors and insoles.  Hard shoes like tap shoes can have the insoles removed and replaced.

--Pointe shoe toe pads should be cleaned at least once a month and replaced at least once a year.  Regardless of what the toe pad is made of, wash them in the sink with antibacterial hand or dish soap and let air dry.  Spacers and gel pieces should be washed in the same way.  Fabric toe pads can be washed in the washing machine, but they tend to pill and are easily lost in the machine.