How to Clean Ballet Shoes (And Make Them Last Longer)

You get taught how to tie them, how to tuck the bow, how to break them in. Then the pair gets grey and stiff and smells like the studio floor, and you either throw them out early or you wear them well past the point they were helping you.

Canvas shoes are washable. That is most of the reason dancers moved to canvas in the first place. The trick is that almost everything that ruins a pair happens after the washing, not during it.

The short version

Hand wash in cool water with a little mild soap. Turn them inside out. Air dry away from heat. Never the dryer, never the radiator, never direct sun on a windowsill.

That is the whole method. The rest of this explains why each part matters, because knowing the why is what stops you from improvising something that costs you a pair.

How often

Wash when they stop looking like yours, not on a schedule.

For most dancers taking class two or three times a week, that lands somewhere around every three or four weeks. If you are in the studio every day, closer to every two. If you only dance once a week, you can go a couple of months.

Washing too often is a real thing. Every wash softens the canvas slightly and loosens the fibers around the stitching. A pair washed every week will go slack before a pair washed every month wears out.

How to wash them

1. Loosen the drawstring and pull it out to the side. Do not untie it completely. Re-threading a drawstring is a job you do not want.
2. Turn the shoe inside out. The inside is where the sweat and the smell live. The outside is mostly floor dust and it comes off easily. Most people wash the outside and wonder why the shoe still smells.
3. Fill a bowl with cool water. Cool, not warm. Warm water relaxes the adhesive holding the sole pads to the canvas, and that is the glue you want to keep.
4. Add a small amount of mild soap. Gentle detergent, a drop of dish soap, or baby shampoo. No bleach, no stain remover, no OxiClean. Those strip color, and on a skin tone shoe the color is the entire point.
5. Work it with your hands for a minute or two. Squeeze the canvas, do not scrub it. Scrubbing fuzzes the weave and makes the shoe look worn before it is.
6. Spot clean the outside with a soft toothbrush. Light pressure, small circles, only where there is a mark.
7. Rinse in clean cool water until the water runs clear. Leftover soap stiffens canvas as it dries and makes it feel like cardboard.
8. Press the water out between two towels. Do not wring them. Wringing twists the sole pads against the canvas and that is how the seam starts to lift.

Drying is the part that actually matters

Stuff each shoe lightly with paper towel or a clean dry cloth. This holds the shape while the canvas shrinks back and keeps the toe box from collapsing flat.

Stand them somewhere with moving air. A countertop, a windowsill with the window cracked, on top of a shelf. Not in the dance bag, not in a closed closet, not inside a plastic bag.

Then leave them alone for 24 hours.

Heat is what destroys canvas shoes, and dancers do this to themselves constantly because class is tomorrow and the shoes are wet tonight. The dryer, the radiator, the heating vent, the hair dryer, a sunny dashboard: all of it shrinks the canvas unevenly, hardens the glue line, and stiffens the suede until it will not bend with your foot anymore. A pair that went through one hot dry cycle never fully comes back.

If you need them dry faster, point a fan at them. Moving air, no heat.

Between washes

Most of what keeps a pair alive is not washing at all.

Take them out of the bag. Every time. A damp shoe sealed in a bag overnight is where the smell is actually made. Thirty seconds of effort buys you weeks.

Own two pairs if you train more than twice a week. Alternating pairs lets each one dry out completely between classes, and two alternated pairs will outlast three worn back to back. This is the single biggest thing you can do.

Keep them for the studio. Walking to class in them grinds grit into the sole pads and wears the suede down against concrete, which is much harder than a sprung floor.

Air them after class. Loosen the drawstring, open the throat of the shoe, let them breathe before they go back in the bag.

When a pair is actually finished

Washing extends a shoe's life. It does not reverse wear. These are the signs you are past the point of maintenance:

• The sole pads are worn smooth or lifting at the edge. Grip is gone and glue will not hold a second time.
• The canvas has gone slack across the top of the foot. A shoe that no longer holds shape no longer supports the foot, no matter how tight you pull the drawstring.
• There is a hole at the big toe or under the ball. That is the shoe telling you where your weight goes.
• The elastic has stretched out and will not sit against the foot.

A pair taken care of this way lasts most dancers somewhere between three and six months of regular class, longer if you alternate two pairs. A pair that lives wet in a bag and goes through the dryer can be done in six weeks.

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Our canvas split sole shoes come in six skin tone shades for adults and kids. If you are still working out which is yours, the shade guide walks through it, and the fit guide covers sizing before you order.

With warmth and grace,
Jaiyah Team