Hey! This is Brian, one of the owners and founders of Dance Paws. I've been a professional dancer, teacher & choreographer my whole adult life (mostly based in Boston and NYC). I was a dancing colleague of Jamie (the designer of Dance Paws). At the time, barefoot modern dancers like us commonly dealt with the toe splits, friction-burns etc. with surgical tape (usually heated with a match or lighter prior to putting on) or just suffered the pain.
We'd all seen early versions of barefoot protective footwear that were simply unwieldy, ugly or didn't help. Jamie's original design (showed to me in Harvard Square, Cambridge in the 1990's) was different and intriguing. When I tried a prototype during a rehearsal, I thought we had something important and unique that filled a niche in the dance world.
Jamie, Nikki and I were - and still are - professional dancers. Our business team has stayed in-house with Lizzie (my wife), computer/graphics friends Amy and Dan, and my son Levi joining. Our investors were my mother, Lizzie's uncle, Jamie's dad and a ceramics-teacher colleague of mine.
We always valued keeping manufacturing close to home within United States border (despite increased costs), and went with noted ballet-shoe maker, Massachusetts-based Cardinal Shoe, to build our Dance Paws. To this day, each pair is hand-sewed.
We have always insisted on high-quality materials, production-methods and uncompromising kindness and responsiveness when it comes to customer service. Dance is about people, and so is Dance Paws.
Dance Paws' team started as dancers and artists and we still are those people. While numerous companies – Capezios with Foot Undeez, Bloch and many others – have their own versions and imitations: WE ARE THE ORIGINAL.
Made by dancers for dancers!