Full sole
One continuous piece of sole material under the whole foot. There is more resistance under the arch, which is the construction many beginner classes start with.
The floor decides
RitmoDance shoes chosen by the floor you train on
Split sole or full sole, suede or leather bottom. We write down what the bottom is made of and which floors it is meant for — then you decide.
Discipline
- Ballet
- Jazz
- Latin
- Contemporary
Discipline
- Ballet
- Jazz
- Latin
- Contemporary
Split sole
Suede bottom · 1.4 mm
- Sprung wood
- Suede
- Marley
- Leather
- Plain wood
- Split sole
- Tile
- Nothing we recommend
- Carpet
- Half sole
- Rubber
- Full sole
Surface
- Sprung wood
- Marley
- Plain wood
- Tile
- Carpet
Surface
- Sprung wood
- Marley
- Plain wood
- Tile
- Carpet
02The turn
Everyone else sorts shoes by the dance.
We sort them by the floor.
A ballet slipper and a jazz shoe can have the same suede bottom. Two ballet slippers can have bottoms that behave nothing alike. The style name on the box tells you about the upper. It tells you almost nothing about the part that touches the ground.
- 01
Sprung wood
A wooden floor built on a flexible subframe, usually sealed with a satin finish. The most common studio floor.
- 02
Marley / vinyl
A rolled vinyl surface laid over a subfloor, matte and slightly textured. Sold by the roll, taped at the seams.
- 03
Plain wood, unsealed
Ordinary floorboards with no finish and no sprung subframe. Open grain, sometimes gaps between planks.
- 04
Tile or concrete
A hard, unyielding surface with no give at all. Common in garages, kitchens and hallways.
- 05
Carpet
Low-pile or loop carpet. The fibres hold on to whatever is pressed into them.
Grip depends on the floor, its finish, and how it's cleaned. We can only tell you what the bottom is made of.
The same shoe, four months apart. The bottom on the right has not been brushed. It is not broken and it is not a defect — it is what suede does.
03Floor Match
Tell us your floor. We will tell you what the bottom should be made of.
Two questions. Sometimes the answer is that we do not have a shoe for you, and we would rather say so.
Two answers and we will tell you what the bottom should be made of.
04Construction
Where the shoe stops bending
Three constructions, described by what they do to the shoe. What that means for your dancing is between you and your teacher.
Split sole
Two pads with a bare gap at the arch. The shoe bends further, so the shape of a point reads more clearly. Nothing about that gap changes what your foot can do — it changes what the shoe stops doing.
Half sole
The pad covers the ball of the foot only. The heel stays bare. Used in contemporary work where most of the foot is meant to be in contact with the floor.
Same size, same last, same lighting. One bends at the arch and one does not.
Soles and floors, in full05Six lines, forty shoes
Everything we make is soft underneath
Prices run from $12 to $188, one-off purchase, no membership of any kind.
06Where most people start
One from each line
07Care
A suede bottom is a consumable
It goes flat, it goes shiny, and it stops behaving the way it did when it was new. A steel brush lifts the fibres again. This is maintenance, not a fault — and it is why we sell the brush at $12 rather than bundling it into the price of every shoe.
08What we will not tell you
Three things you will not read anywhere on this site
01
That a shoe protects you
We make no injury-prevention, ankle-support, arch-correction or therapeutic claim about anything we sell. A soft shoe is a soft shoe. If you have a foot problem, that is a conversation with a clinician, not with a shop.
02
That a bottom never slips
Grip is a property of the floor, its finish and how recently it was cleaned. We can tell you the bottom is suede, 1.4 mm, split into two pads. We cannot tell you how it will behave in your studio.
03
That we sell pointe shoes
We do not. Pointe shoes need a fitter to assess each foot individually for shape, strength and fit. Selling them online is not something we are willing to do.