If you enjoy practicing and dancing in your pole shoes, you will probably have come across some issues in the maintenance of your Pleasers. There are a number of recurrent problems that polers face in terms of the upkeep of their favourite pole shoes, with problems arising due to the general, daily wear and tear from training, floor work and dancing.
Here are some solutions for the most common issues:
PROBLEM: RUBBER SOLE PEELING AWAY
If you love to trace, skate and slide in your floor work and low flow then you may have experienced the sole of your Pleasers peeling away at the front platform.
Saving Your Shoes
I have heard that using heavy duty glue such as E6000 or superglue is a great way to reattach rubber soles that have peeled away as a result of toe dragging.
PROBLEM: FINISH RUBBING OFF
Again, this is a problem that tends to arise if you enjoy practicing floor work, sliding, skating and so on in your heels. The coloured or chrome finish of Pleaser heels isn’t designed to be very robust against such practice and the colour will inevitably get worn off.
Preventative Measures
Using socks to cover the platform part of your shoe allows you to skate, slide and trace to your heart’s content, without worrying about the finish of your heels getting worn off by daily practice.
Saving Your Shoes
Although I haven’t come up with a 100% effective and long lasting way, the easiest short-term fix is to cover up any scuffs and wear using a Sharpie pen in a matching colour to the shoe. This works pretty well because unless you are looking at the shoes very closely you won’t notice the scuff marks. Of course, as soon as you begin tracing and dragging again, the Sharpie will wear off leaving you back where you started.
Alternatively, you could start all over again by glittering your Pleasers. There are a few tutorials out there but I will be making my own at some point. All you need to do is sandpaper down your Pleasers, and apply layers of glitter using Modge Podge until you have covered them completely. Once you have done this you can ensure they last by adopting the sock method above when you practice.
PROBLEM: DIRTY FOOT BEDS
If you have bought a style of Pleasers with a light coloured foot bed then the likelihood is that they have gotten a bit grubby with wear. I’m not really sure of any way to prevent this from happening, other than adopting the sock method above.
Saving Your Shoes
Once dirty a simple way to spruce up and clean your foot beds is simply wiping them down with a wet wipe and allowing them to dry.
PROBLEM: TORN PVC FINISH
Combining spikey high heels with pole dancing and PVC finish boots is bound to lead to some accidents. Tearing the PVC finish of your Pleaser boots is easy to do, so having some solutions in place is important.
Saving Your Shoes
If you have torn the finish of your shoe and the PVC is still attached like a ‘flap’ use some strong adhesive such as Super Glue to reattach the flap. If you have torn it away completely, glossy black nail polish is a good way to cover up the blemish, and shouldn’t be too noticeable unless on close inspection.
PROBLEM: BROKEN HEEL STRAPS
The straps on your Pleasers may break or become detached with use, especially if you experience a trip or fall where you roll over your ankle.
Saving Your Shoes
The easiest remedy for this is to replace the straps with the detachable clear straps that have now been released for sale. These allow you to use strapless heel styles without the risk of them coming off your feet whilst you are dancing.
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This post is your resource for all things related to caring for your Pleasers. If you have an amazing tip for caring for your pole shoes, or a resolution for a common problem you have encountered, let me know so that I can add it to this list to help other polers out.
Any advice for the pleaser xtreme faux leather boot? I have been trying to get away from animal products so I chose not to get the real leather or the patent. Also no matter what I do, my narrow toes always pop waaaay out of the open toe varieties. And its my first bump up to an 8 inch heel. First class I got to test out shoulder rolls and dragging the front of the platform and saw it’s really dragging on the tip of the toe on the leather instead of the platform. Besides always using socks to protect them is there a technique to get the drag onto the platform (since they are higher it will probably take practice you figure this out) and to prevent from the scratching inn the pleather from spreading?
Thanks!
Because in rolls you are really pointing your toe, you will end up getting toe drag, I think it is unavoidable. In the open shoe varieties you catch on the platform precisely because there is no toe there. The only way to avoid would be to slightly flex the feet maybe as you roll but that looks ugly as hell! You’ll have to stick with the socks to protect them for now, if I think of something else I’ll let you know 🙂 I’ll have a play at the studio and see where my contact points are on my boots when I roll
brasso is good for perspex so are those clear platforms perspex? not a pole dancer. just looking for pvc care.
anyway, apply brasso with a soft cloth and polish with a dry soft cloth should remove fine scratches.
NEVER use vaseline on any part of pvc boot/shoe. i did and that’s why i’m hunting for tips. i thought i was giving my relatively new pvc boots some moisture in creased areas hoping to prolong their life. WRONG!!! now the creased areas have no pvc on them at all. they have peeling curls of black shiny bits exposing lining underneath so now i’ll be using marker pens to touch up providing that sharpies dont make matters worse
My new pleasers are leaving black marks all over the place. My pole teacher has said this seems to be an issue with new pleasers and I was wondering if anyone had any tips to stop them from scuffing all over the shop?
I have a problem with pleasers with clear ankle strap widdening A LOT, has anyone else experienced this? The clear plastic has widened so much (both the straps and the piece at the front around the feet) that the shoes are now loose even when I tighten the strap to maximum…
I have this problem too … that’s what brought me to this thread. Have you figured out a solution? If I poke a hole beyond the reinforced zone, is the strap likely to rip?
So I came up with an easy fix for patching up holes & scuffs. My patent pleasers had patches worn off so i recovered the area with adhesive vinyl from a signwrighter, it blends right in, is tough & comes in a ton of colours. This could easily work on the platform part too. I plan to cover & protect the hard wearing areas of my next pair before i scuff them up.
My new baby pink chrome pleasers are making a “clicking” sound on the bottom part of the platform every time i take a step? Does anyone know what it could be?
Pleaser have finally started doing pre-trimmed rubber soles on there pole shoes, so no more having to trim them to stop them peeling away
News Release here: https://www.fmheels.co.uk/info/pleaser-pole-shoes
Hi! Your video for trimming/cutting down the rubber on new shoes says it’s private, is there any way you can post a new one?
Thank you!
Hi Kerri, thanks for the comment. The creator of the video must have made it private, if I find another one I will add it to the post!
Help getting my new thigh high boots on
They literally get stuck on the calf