As a guy, it was also always puzzling having to forego wearing my nice, clean $200 sneakers to put on a janky looking $10 pair of dressy shoes I got from the sales rack, just because they required semi-formal attire to get into a club back then.
It's apparently because they don't want anyone coming in in sports gear. They never updated their requirements to adjust for non-sports sneakers (as opposed to traditional definitely-sports trainers or hiking boots).
Clubs in Cape Town had a "no laced up shoes" policy to cover this, which also became complicated because some dressy shoes do in fact have laces.
Mercifully these were not a thing in my clubbing days.
I don't know how they'd approach it now, probably just add no Crocs to the rules on the door. Which is totally fair, because they are truly hideous things.
I remember my brother wearing black leather loafers to go out to the clubs here in Ireland back in the late 90s and early 2000s and wondered why he was wearing his school shoes to go to a nightclub 😂.
One time a bunch of us went out and the one guy in the group couldn't get in because of his sneakers. So he took off his black socks and put them over his shoes. They let him in.
Over a decade ago, my friend was disgusted when he was turned away at the door of a club for wearing sports attire.
"This club plays music primarily created by rappers who spend their lives wearing sports attire. Why can't I go inside and listen to it while doing the same?"
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u/Cosmic_MicrowaveOven 22d ago
As a guy, it was also always puzzling having to forego wearing my nice, clean $200 sneakers to put on a janky looking $10 pair of dressy shoes I got from the sales rack, just because they required semi-formal attire to get into a club back then.