Tango Shoe Divas

I am considering several firsts: buying tango shoes on the Internet, trying a platform, and designing my own shoes.

I have some limitations. My feet have fallen arches and joint pain in the big toes as a result. (Any favorites among metatarsal pads?) My best discovery is gel toe spacers. I wear flat shoes with orthotics to work and put the orthotics in my Sansha sneakers for other dancing (contra, swing). I’m only 27 and I want to keep my feet from getting worse! I have been dancing tango in low heeled cross-strap Werner Kerns, but I’m feeling the beautiful shoes calling my name… besides, I recently tried my first pair of hard leather soles for tango and I can never go back! So, new shoes are in order and I’m not finding the right selection, even in New York.

I had Tango Wear recommended by a friend of mine and I love all the options. I’ve narrowed it down to several styles but the color choices are daunting. I want to go beyond black, but I’m not fond of the stereotypical red-black combination. I want purple-green, turquoise-orange, silver-black (not all on the same shoe). Am I crazy? I need your input.

Here are the STYLES I’m considering. Because of my foot issues, I’ve ruled out sandal toes. It’s too risky without being able to try them on. A full heel cage gives me needed stability. I’m sticking to a heel under 3″; I’m happy about the 6cm option! Probably a .5cm platform so my toes can still flex. Preferences on heel styles? Tango Wear offers flared and straight. I’m inclined to go with the flared for stability, but do you think the straight would look better on any of these models?

The fun ones: (remember, I’m coming from plain black Werner Kern ballroom shoes)

Under Baires: I love the strap across the heel look.

Eduviges: I love this heel cage even more, but it only comes in a 7.5cm heel.

The safeties:

Alfonsina: the stable cross-strap design

Or Aroma de Mujer

Or Zigana

Tanguera for maximum coverage.

Or Marmolina:

The comfort shoe:

Sabrina: love the heel cage and it comes in 4.5, 5, and 5.5cm! They can make this a closed toe, right? Of course they can.

Now for the COLORS!! I haven’t emailed Tango Wear yet to find out what’s possible, so I’m using my imagination. Another important question: durability. I’ve read that the metallics don’t last long. How does suede wear? Does patent leather get scuffed beyond recognition? Will the silver dots on the black suede get rubbed off? Does satin just get dirty? I would like to mix textures: suede on patent, metallic on leather, etc.

For a neutral shoe (the safety):

Beige with gold

Animal!

Black satin with white polka dots, white or silver leather

Black suede with silver dots, silver leather

Black base with pink trim

For a fun shoe:

Metalized blue and orange. It’s not featured on their page, but they must have a regular blue leather I could use as a base, right? The orange is for accents.

Various combinations of black and purple. Add green trim for contrast? Probably for the Sabrina, since the low heel is purple.

Since it takes so long for Tango Wear to arrive, should I order one to try it out, or go for all three at once? If I order now, I might get them by Christmas!

Marguerite

Since I started leading I have discovered an new problem. I need more shoes. Stop laughing. Seriously. I have ONE pair of 3 inch heels and the rest are 3.5 and 4. For awhile I led in my “Go-To” following pair, but as I got serious I realized that I needed the grounding of a real pair of lead shoes. I bought a cheap pair of canvas ballroom shoes with a 1.75″ heel – they work ok, but they are UGLY, they truly offend the Shoe Diva in me. I have also bought a couple of pairs of street shoes with varying results (one pair I really like, but they are gold, and I find myself having to constantly find new clothes to go with them because I wear them so much).

These are what I’ve been trying to lead in:

Additionally I think about occasionally going out for some swing dancing. Guess what? I don’t have any swing dance shoes either. Can you imagine me trying to Lindy Hop in 4″ CiF? Could someone call an orthopedic surgeon and keep him on hold? (I HAVE done it in 3″ Jorge Nel shoes however – the swing dancers thought I was nuts… They were probably right.)

So here is a list of my demands:
Ideal lead height <2"
Chunky Heel for stability
Looks ok with a skirt (Dance sneakers look ridiculous on me)
Cute enough to be my primary swing shoe
A platform would be really nice (with a 2-2.5" heel would be awesome)
Can I dream that I could follow in them?

I am getting desperate. I'm teaching. I'm leading. I dance 5+ days a week. And dammit, I want to go swing dancing! It was getting to the point that I had been toying with the idea of sucking it up and buying some Jorge Nel (my negative association with my JN shoes is actually what inspired me to start this site). I actually kind of like these but with this heel (The picture on the left, I’m imagining them in silver leather with maybe a black or grey mesh). But I was really disappointed to find that he doesn’t offer a platform option (of course the platform is part of what caused the problem last time…). He does offer these in virtually unlimited colors (picture on the right) but by the time I get a platform, arch support and proper padding they would be $150… Ouch!

Desperate times call for Jorge Nel?

I was heading that direction, but salvation is at hand!

Reviewing comments here, I realized I might be making a logical error. Stop trying to make tango shoes work for swing, make swing shoes work for tango… Enter Aris Allen. Now I don’t know all that much about swing shoes (it’s been at least 5 years since I went swing dancing!), but I have done some looking around and these seem to be the brand. Long ago, before the explosion of tango shoes, I had considered getting some Bleyer swing shoes as a comfortable practice alternative, but they seem to have disappeared (thank you weak dollar and crashing economy…)

So this is my current frontrunner:

It’s no CiF, but I think it might fit the bill. It has a leather sole, a platform and the heel height is perfect (2.25 – .5 inch platform). And it is only $90 with all the options! Anyone want to tell me that it is the most hideous thing ever? Because if you don’t talk me out of it those babies will be here, hopefully before the next time we have practice.

There are a bunch of oxford styled shoes, but there are some others that I think would be good with skirts:

Closed Back Wedge, funky but kind of cool…

Mary Jane (no platform on this one, but I like the look)
Rug Cutter – I like this style, but I have gold shoes that I like for now.

Hmmm. It is hard for me to buy sensible shoes, but these are looking pretty good, all things considered… Anyone want to tell me that I am crazy?

It’s that time of year isn’t it. I got this question twice in comments so I thought I would throw it out to the ladies in general.

From a MALE user:
“I know she reads Tango Shoe Diva so everything will be written with strict confidentiality using only anonymous pronouns; but what do you think of a woman who refuses to let her man (and tango partner) buy new shoes with the claim “but you just bought me new pair of ‘Comme Il Faut’ shoes”? The term ‘fetish’ has even been tossed about by this lovely lady when I complain I need to purchase another pair for her. Valentine’s Day is just around the corner. Is it me … or her? Comments please?”

From my point of view there are two possibilities here, one is the “Oh, honey, you don’t need to buy me anything!” but she will be secretly thrilled. It IS Valentines Day after all and CiF ARE jewelry for the feet. On the other hand, if she’s really serious then you risk her being angry for not listening to her. I know that the more tango shoes I own, the more particular I get about adding new ones to the collection… I’ve become a regular control freak about what goes on my feet. I am only looking for very particular combinations of styles, colors and heel heights, so make sure that you can make a good selection for her on those factors before you decide to go ahead and buy shoes for her anyway.

And on the subject of shoe fetish… Join the club. I think there are a lot of mild shoe fetishists amongst the tango leaders. I am fond of saying that Tango is the only safe place for a straight man to openly notice and admire women’s footwear. Heck, we spend $200 a pair on them, we’d be disappointed if you guys didn’t appreciate them a little…

And for you and all the other Shoe Fetishists out there, here is a picture of me and my “Shoe Sister” when we realized that we had perfectly matching nail polish to each other’s shoes!

While my Love/Hate relationship with Darcos has been discussed thoroughly, I have managed to convince myself to order another pair (which I am NOT going to show you yet…) and in convincing myself that I deserve yet another pair of shoes, I also seem to have enabled one of my friends.

So here is my dilemma. Both I and the other shoe diva wear a size 7.5 and have gotten a perfect fit by ordering down a half size (ie a size 7). I had to discover this by ordering one pair that don’t fit particularly well. But my other friend friend wears a tiny size 6! It seems so extreme to tell her to order a size 5.5, but I hate for her to have to go through the wrong sizing issues that I did.

So does anyone ELSE have any experience with sizing and Darcos, especially if you have tiny, tiny little feet? (Her feet are so small I don’t know how she balances to dance!)

And because it would be a boring post without a picture, here is a dose of SHOES!

Bonus points if you can tell me what pair of shoes belong to me!

This is from a comment left on a previous post. Does anyone want to offer some advice?

“Love to read your stuff! I started tango March ‘07 using ballroom shoes. Have my first pair of 3″ CiF, but also need some comfortable “get me thru the night” shoes as I’ve worked on my feet all my life.

Please recommend some favorites by brand, style and heel height if you can. Also, what do you wear to class? Many thanks!

Comment by Luvshuz2 — December 18, 2007″