Which Soft Shoe Would Be The Best For Me?

In more recent times, chamois leather has been used for soles, and the uppers have been made of thicker stronger leather. Ankle loops are now standard on nearly all brands of soft shoes. Most shoes these days do not have pleats, but rather have a full sole, stitched right at the toe and the heel to the upper. These shoes will, by nature of their construction, tend to outlast pleated shoes.

Thicker plain leather is also sometimes used on the soles of softies, and helps make the shoe more durable and comfortable.

All of our manufacturers are adding a padding between the inner and outer soles, to help protect against impact shock. Some padding tends to collapse after a period, some is thicker than others, some more comfortable than others. Keeping in mind that many dancers start at maybe age 6 and go through into their 20's or further, the importance of protecting feet against jarring is obvious. Dancers MUST protect their feet during their dancing years, when bones and soft tissue are still growing and are liable to permanent damage!

Don't be too disappointed if your pumps wear out within 12 months! They get a lot of punishment, tend to be a bit neglected, and are not really designed to last much more than 12 months, though many seem to keep on going for years!

So the choice of a soft shoe type basically depends from personal requirements. E.g. how often and how long as well as what you will be dancing (learner, hobby dancer, championship or principal dancer etc.). Simply use our information guide below, to choose a matching Irish pump:

Selection According to Experience and Dance Frequency

Appropriate to Beginners, Amateurs and Children:

Maybe you would like to try Irish dancing at first to see if this will be yours or not. From that point of view it's less a question of footwear but rather a question of money. Appropriate shoes will be:

Antonio Pacelli Loop

Bonye Walk Regular Brigaduns

If you have absolutely no experiences from other dances or footwork intensive sports you should consider that beginners, amateurs and children should always decide for a jig shoe with a thicker and stable leathersole because of a weak musculature, ligaments and tendons at the first time.

Appropriate to advanced Irish dancers:

The following soft shoes are equiped with ultraflexible black suede soles and additional cushions. They are a more comfortable and do have an extremely short or no breaking-in period:

Boyne Walk Reel Comfort

Fays Black Suede / Platinum Pump

Appropriate to Championship dancers and Show dancers:

This soft shoe type often has a split sole and a seamless toe which reduces friction and irritation around the toe area, a preshaped arch to reduce arch fatigue and a contoured heel which is shaped to support and hug the heel so the pump feel secure during movement.

Antonio Pacelli Elite
Fays Celtic Choice Champions Pump

Choosing a Size

First of all you will only select your common street shoe size only and we will find out the right model size for you!

Please note that Irish soft shoes should always fit narrow and tight. They will become wider and a little bit larger after a while depending on your grade!

Give us your common street shoe size and we will find out the right model size for you. But it's also important to know how long or often you are dancing. When ordering a dance shoe we are also asking for additional data to identify a matching model size. Filling out the fields will help to reduce misdeliveries and disappointments. So please always fill out all form fields, thank you.

If you are between sizes (8 - 8.5) please choose the larger/largest size as your common street shoe size.

You will always find more sizing help information in any of our shoe item descritptions.

Model Comparison

	Boyne Walk Regular Brigadun	Antonio Pacelli Loop	Boyne Walk Reel Comfort	Antonio Pacelli Eclipse
Cushioning:
Sole thickness:
Flexibility:
Foot shaping:
Comfortability:
Especially recommended to:	Beginners, "Sometime-dancers", Children	Beginners, "Sometime-dancers", Children	Experienced dancers, Intermediate dancers, Feis dancers, Show dancers, Dance instructors	Beginners, advanced and Intermediate dancers, Feis dancers, Dance instructors, dancers with foot trouble
Leather quality*:
Workmanship*:
Country of Origin:	Ireland	Ireland	Ireland	Ireland (acc. to manufacturer)
Manufacturer:	Boyne Walk	Antonio Pacelli	Boyne Walk	Antonio Pacelli

Continuation

	Fays Black Suede	Antonio Pacelli Elite	Fays Celtic Choice	Hullachan Pro AP
Cushioning:		Split sole, inner Poron®	Split sole, inner Poron®	Split sole, inner Poron® like
Sole thickness:
Flexibility:
Foot shaping:
Comfortability:
Especially recommended to:	Advanced and Intermediate dancers, Feis dancers, Dance instructors, dancers with foot trouble	Open dancers, Feis dancers, Show dancers	Open dancers, Feis dancers, Show dancers	Open dancers, Feis dancers, Show dancers
Leather quality*:
Workmanship*:
Country of Origin:	Irland	Ireland (acc. to manufacturer)	USA	Scotland
Manufacturer:	Fays Shoes	Antonio Pacelli	Fays Shoes	Hullachan

* Based on statements of famous German shoemakers

What Else Do You Have To Consider?

I need a better cushioning!
Just take the Fays Black Suede / Platinum Pump which has the best cushioning that we have ever seen!

Left and right soft shoes?
Only some Boyne Walk soft shoes have an arch support area which is to find on the insole. This area is the inside of a foot (e.g. if printed on the right side this will be a left shoe and vice versa). Other Irish soft shoes usually do not differ in a left and right shoe from production. But we always recommend to tag one of the shoes to make sure that you'll always take on the same shoe to the same foot. This will help not to wear them out and will increase the soft shoes live because the most pairs of foot have different lengths and shapes.

Individual Advise Needed Anyway?

If you are still unsure or if you need some more details please fill out the form below, thank you. But please understand that we will not reply to buyers who already planned to buy somewhere else.