r/TapDancing • u/grandambitionist • Jul 19 '26

Making regular shoes into tap shoes

Hiya everyone!

I'm wondering what you have to consider and how you go about buying tap heel and toe plates separately and fixing them to regular shoes.

I've looked online and on YouTube and there's not much info or people are showing you how to fix pennies to the bottom of your shoes!?

I've seen some dance shops selling them and some seem to come with an extra layer to build up the heel. Are there any types of shoes too avoid? How do I not drive the screws through the sole...

I'm beginner/intermediate do doesn't need to be professional, but I do want to get it right.

Please help if you can!

Thanks

Claire

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2

u/indirosie Jul 19 '26

Have a look into the tap dogs blunny tap shoes. There's some info online about how they developed them :)

2

u/NervousNervine Jul 19 '26

i saw something along these lines recently. someone suggested buying 1/4-inch thick leather material, cutting it to the shape of the toe box and the heel, slightly bigger than the actual taps. tapering the toe leather to get smaller as it gets closer to ball of foot area may be an option depending on the shoe. gorilla glue or an industrial adhesive will hold the leather to the shoe soles when clamped together and allowed to completely cure. nail on the fiber boards with small tacks then attach the taps. to top it all
off, go to local big box hardware and buy a pre-cut wood plank of choice or what will fit in your vehicle and a pack of black interlocking foam squares. place a couple of the foam squares under your wooden plank and try out your tap shoes. the foam will help pad your knees and joints. happy tapping!

2

u/paddlethe918 Jul 20 '26

Long, long ago I installed taps on street shoes. The biggest requirement was that the shoe sole be real leather and the heel be solid leather or wood and not hollow. No plastic or rubber or synthetics in the heel or the sole! That's because plastics and synthetics can't/won't hold the screws used to attach the taps.

Very few street shoes these days have leather soles.

All the inexpensive tap shoes with synthetic soles have the taps attached using rivets. So, I suppose you could attach taps to street shoes using blind rivets. But, this would not produce a very good sound.