Shoes: Breaking In Pleasers and Saving Your Feet

Start with ankle-strap platform stilettos around six inches, warm the clear straps with a hair dryer for a few seconds so they mold to your foot, and wear heels only for work. A platform heel is less steep than it looks because the sole lifts the front of your foot too, which is why dancers can stand in eight-inch shoes for six hours while a four-inch pump from a department store would cripple them by midnight. The brand most dancers mean when they say "my heels" is Pleaser, and a pair typically runs $50 to $90.

Which heels should I buy first?

Buy one pair of clear or black ankle-strap platforms with a heel between six and seven inches, in a style with a closed or caged toe. The ankle strap is the point: it keeps the shoe on your foot when you are moving fast, kneeling, climbing onto a stage or stepping off one, and it stops the shoe from sliding during a dance. Open mules look good in photos and come off at the worst moment. Most clubs require a minimum heel height, usually four to six inches, so check before you buy, and ask about color rules too, since some rooms want clear and some want black.

Dancers who have broken in a lot of pairs recommend starting at six inches, getting comfortable, and only going to seven or eight if the stage or the house style calls for it. The higher you go the more it costs your calves and lower back over a shift.

The hair-dryer trick

New clear straps are stiff and cut into the top of the foot and the ankle. Put the shoe on, run a hair dryer over the strap for about five seconds at a time until it softens, then buckle it where it is comfortable and let it cool on your foot. The strap takes the shape of your ankle and stops rubbing. Repeat for the toe strap if it has one. This is the single most repeated shoe tip among dancers who train new hires, and it turns a two-week break-in into one evening at home.

While you are there, scuff the soles. Platforms ship with slick bottoms, and a polished stage or a wet floor by the bar will put you down. Rough the sole with sandpaper or walk on concrete for ten minutes before the first shift.

How do I stop my feet hurting?

You will not stop it entirely, but you can keep it to a dull ache instead of an injury. The pattern dancers describe is squats in eight-inch heels for hours, and the fixes are the ones any athlete uses:

• Warm up before stage: calf raises, ankle circles, a few minutes walking in the shoes before your set.
• Sit when you can on the floor; a customer in a booth is a rest as well as a sale.
• Stretch calves and hamstrings during the shift and again after, because heels shorten the calf and the ache the next morning is the muscle complaining.
• Gel pads under the ball of the foot and a thin heel grip stop the slide forward that causes the burning under the toes.
• Keep heels for work only. Vets are blunt about this: wear flats off shift, let the feet recover, and your work shoes will last longer too.
• Wash your feet and the inside of the shoes after every shift. Clubs are dirty and a blister that gets infected ends a week of work.

For the full warm-up and injury side, see Squats in Eight-Inch Heels.

Shoes wear out faster than you think

A pair worn four nights a week lasts a few months. The heel tips go first, then the strap stitching, then the platform cover starts to peel. Replace the heel tips at a cobbler for a few dollars rather than letting them wear to the metal, which is loud on stage and dangerous on tile. Carry a backup pair in your locker because a broken strap on a Saturday is a lost shift if you do not. Dancers report rotating two pairs so neither gets soaked with sweat two nights running.

Shoes worn only for work are a business expense. Log every pair with its receipt and the date. See Taxes for Dancers.

Buying smart

Try shoes on in the afternoon if you can, because feet swell during the day and you want the size that fits at 1 a.m. Many dancers go up half a size from their street size in platforms. Buy from a dancewear shop or a trusted online retailer rather than a marketplace seller, since counterfeit platforms snap at the shank. Other dancers sell lightly worn pairs; a used pair in the right size is fine for a backup. If a club has a house mom with stock, she will have a pair in an emergency at a markup, which is worth it once and not as a habit.

Do this tonight

• Check the club's minimum heel height and color rule before buying.
• Buy one pair of six-inch ankle-strap platforms, half a size up if your feet swell.
• Mould the straps with a hair dryer and scuff the soles before the first shift.
• Pack gel pads, heel grips, blister plasters and a backup pair in your bag.
• Put the receipt in your expense log the same day.