Related pages on our web site:
• Buying Dance Shoes
• Suede Soles Maintenance
• Dancing on bad floors

Do-It-Yourself
Suede-Soled Shoes
or Sneakers

Letting the pros do it. For the faint of heart or muscle, you can have suede soles put on by a skilled shoe repair person. We recommend Jimmy's Shoe Repair in Central Square, Cambridge (on Prospect St., between Mass. Ave. and Bishop Allen Dr.). Price was $38 for suede half-soles (that is, excluding the heel); $48 for suede soles and heels, the last time we checked (Oct 2004). For best dancing, we recommend suede soles and heels. In New York, go directly to Pete's Theatrical Shoe Repair, a little store within a store located inside Caperzio's flagship store at 1650 Broadway, 2nd floor, building entrance around the corner on 51st Street. Pete's repairs all brands of dance shoes, and ONLY dance shoes. Super-expert service and top quality materials at prices lower than regular shoe repair joints. Complete ballroom shoe resoling is about $30-35. For Ballroom shoes, ask for suede soles AND heels, rather than the standard suede soles and rubber heels (which is good for theater dance but not for ballroom dancing).

Suede-soled shoes are great for dancing, because on almost any floor, for almost any dance, the suede gives just about the right amount of slip-vs-grip. Reasonably good on carpet, too! Suede-soled shoes are the universal norm for Ballroom dancers and for an increasing number of Swing and Salsa dancers.

The nifty thing about suede-soled shoes is that you can create 'em yourself with minimal skill. This means that you can put suede on the bottom of anything you wear on your feet -- including sneakers. You'll save money over buying a pair of Ballroom shoes (but, of course, you won't get the same feather-weight, extra-cushioned, steel-tang-supported, high quality construction).

The following detailed instructions also work perfectly for replacing the suede when it finally loses all its nap (about one to two years for most hard-dancing dancers) -- just pull off the old suede with pliers and muscle, and then do the following.

You may want to print this page for easier reference while shopping for supplies or while working. It beats getting glue on your computer screen.

To test a pair of shoes or sneakers for a while before permanently adding suede, put GAFFER TAPE on the soles before you go dancing. This is high quality tape that looks like a cloth version of duct tape, but unlike duct tape it does everything well: it tears easily, it sticks remarkably well (even to weird uneven sneaker soles), and best of all, it removes really well without leaving residue. It is used mainly by folks in the film and video industries to mount things and tape down cables without harming what it is stuck to. It's not cheap, at about $13-17 for a fat 2" roll, available at art supply stores or online from film and video suppliers such as Markertek. But it is by far the best temporary solution we have yet found, and does a quite good job of simulating how suede will feel on your shoes or sneakers.

You'll need shoes of some sort, of course, or sneakers. We recommend against gluing the suede directly to your feet.

Pre-cut (almost) approach: You can get approximately-precut leather and glue kits at Patterson's or any other store that caters to the hard-core Ballroom Dance crowd. (You'll still need (c) through (g) below, though.)

Or:

(a) Suede leather. You will have to find some. "Chrome" leather is the almost no-nap suede that is used on ballroom shoes, and is a good choice. Moderately fuzzy suede -- the kind often sold in bargain priced scraps -- is an even better choice, in our opinion, especially if your favorite dance places have "fast" (slippery) floors. Unfortunately, our former favorite place to buy suede -- Berman Leather in Boston -- no longer sells it or any other leatherworking supplies. However, you can try your local Michaels arts & crafts shop, or you can buy suede leather scraps for about $10 (good for a few pairs of shoes) from most cobblers or from these friendly folks here in Boston:

The Designers - Leather Clothiers
106 Charles St.
Boston, MA 02114
(617) 720-3967
www.designerleatherclothes.com

Non-leather alternatives? Our friend Wendy Wenck of Virginia Beach has experimented with several non-leather materials including vinyls, and says that BY FAR the best was a microfiber upholstery material bought at an upholstery shop. It will make your soles quite slippery, especially after you've worn it a while. But if you like slippery soles (many lindy hop dancers do), it's the material you want. Glues well, stays in place, long lasting. Vinyl and similar fake leathers from fabric stores, on the other hand, are terrible and fall apart almost instantly: avoid them. (If you have other good suggestions regarding materials you have tested and found satisfactory, please let us know, and we'll post the info right here. Thanks!)

(b) Adhesive. Spend another few bucks at any shoe repair place on a tube or container of Barge Cement, or stop into any stationer's for a bottle of contact cement. They're almost the same thing, but Barge is designed as a leather cement and is a bit "rubberier," which means it stays on the surface of the suede better without soaking in, and is therefore considerably easier to work with.

(c) Brush. If the adhesive can/bottle/tube does not have a built-in brush (Barge doesn't), you'll need to buy one. Any cheap, stiff throwaway brush that can fit into the container's mouth will do. Better to buy a cheap brush and throw it away, than to worry about cleaning a good brush. You're just smearing on glue, you know, not painting the Sistine Chapel. Most hardware stores carry little packages of 3 or 5 brushes for $1 or $2, just for such uses. You should buy brushes with bristles, rather than the sponge 'brushes.' Contact cements have an amazing number of high-powered solvents in them, some of which will instantly dissolve certain kinds of foam. A fine alternative is to find a used toothbrush around the house, or simply borrow your least favorite family member's new toothbrush. (Note: Contact cements are poisonous - do not brush teeth with them.) [used toothbrush tip, thanks to Augusta R. of Michigan]

(d) Knife. You need a VERY sharp knife, not just a kitchen knife. Put a fresh blade in the ol' utility knife or Xacto knife -- that'll set you back a whopping 15 cents or so (or about $4 if you need the whole knife). Or use a single-edged razor blade very carefully. Blades and knives are available at any stationer, any hardware, any art supply (such as Pearl Art or Utrecht's), or any chain-store or pharmacy that sells school supplies.

(e) Scissors. For the initial rough cut, a good pair of sharp-edged Fiskars will do. Don't even bother with dull scissors: leather is tough stuff. If you have a pair of leather shears, great, but if you do then you don't need to read this!

(f) Cardboard. Tip: put cardboard under everything (cut up an old box). The glue will almost certainly drip, and contact cements are almost impossible to clean off. Cardboard is better than newspaper because it stays put even when your shoe or leather is sticking to it slightly, whereas newspaper comes up, flaps around, and adheres to everything.

(g) Rubber gloves, optional. Contact cement doesn't like to get off your hands! You might want to pop a pair of rubber gloves on during the gluing phases of things, just to keep the glue off ya.

For those who like a detailed STEP-BY-STEP guide, here's one way to go about it. This may look like a lot of steps, but remember that even a simple cut-and-paste on computer takes about 6 steps to describe in complete detail. The following is really just Trace, Cut, Glue, Trim, with tips to help you get it right the first time:

(1) Trace. Do an oversized tracing of your shoe on the leather, allowing maybe 1/4 to 1/2 inch extra all around. (A ballpoint pen is a good marker). Make sure you put the shoe on the WRONG side of the leather for tracing, that is, on the side that ISN'T going to touch the floor when you are dancing. Reminder: the fuzzier side is the "floor" side, and the smoother side is the marking and gluing side. Because your trace marks will disappear when you cut out the leather, also boldly mark "GLUE" on the side that gets the glue, and mark each leather piece "R" or "L" -- it's amazingly easy to screw it up if you don't. (This is the Voice of Bitter Experience talking at ya.)

(2) Cut out the leather. A good pair of sharp Fiskar scissors will work fine, but you're pushing its limit so go slow.

(3) Gather together all of the glue-up stuff: leather pieces, shoes, adhesive, brush, optional rubber gloves, cardboard. Give yourself enough room that all the pieces can sit and air-dry next to each other, without touching, after you put glue on them. Put cardboard down underneath everything to protect the whole area. Put on the rubber gloves, if you have them.

(4) Glue, part 1. Apply glue to both the leather AND the shoe [or sneaker] bottoms, covering completely. Be sure to get full coverage right to the very edge in all directions, especially the toe area. If you are using Barge cement, apply a thin but definite layer with no dry or half-dry spots. If you're using regular contact cement rather than the Barge version, don't be stingy -- the suede will soak it up pretty thirstily -- so apply it almost like you are spreading peanut butter on bread. How do you hold the leather down without sticking a finger in glue? One way is to stick your utility or Xacto knife point into it, and then brush around it. (You can just throw that glue-covered blade away afterwards, or carefully rub the dried glue off later.) But be careful NOT to drip any glue onto the visible parts of your shoe! Contact cement is almost impossible to clean off!

(5) Glue, part 2. Let everything air-dry APART until dry-tacky to the touch (about 10-25 minutes). Do not rush this phase. (This is the standard way to use all members of the contact cement family: apply to both surfaces, let dry, then stick 'em together.)

(6) Glue, part 3. Press the two glued surfaces together -- keeping in mind that you have almost no chance for a second chance, so aim carefully. One good technique: you can put the leather down flat, glue side up, and then carefully press the shoe onto it.

(7) Trim. Carefully, with very sharp blade (leather is tough stuff), trim off the excess leather edge. A new utility knife blade or Xacto knife blade works fine; so does a single-edged razor blade. You can also use your Fiskars again, but you'll have trouble getting a smooth edge.

(8) Finish, part 1. You can do a final high-pressure adherence with a mallet, or a hammer, or simply by putting on the shoes and walking around.

(9) Finish, part 2. If you don't like the light gray/brown edge of the leather, grab a magic marker and color it.

Voilà! Suede or leather bottoms on any pair of shoes or sneakers you have. They should last about a year or two.

Suede soles are durable, but they definitely need a bit more care than regular soles. We have a separate Suede Soles Maintenance page, where we even include a picture of the recommended wire brush. We wouldn't want all your brilliant do-it-yourself'ing to be wasted!