Discount Dance Supply

Full review
After much deliberation (on the part of my husband) and begging (on the part of my three-year-old son), Buster has finally started dance lessons. We were looking for some type of lessons that would use up some of his boundless energy, teach him some discipline, and best of all, not break the bank, and after comparing prices of things like Tae Kwan Do and listening to his begging to take dance like his older sister, we signed him up. There is only one problem: tap shoes for toddler boys are beyond even the expense of my daughter's required tan tap shoes, and finding them locally was going to defeat the purpose of saving money by putting him in dance. Luckily, I stumbled upon the Discount Dance Supply Online Store.

::: Discounts Plus Variety :::

The Discount Dance Supply Online Store has a very simple splash page, with a picture of a dancer and links to product categories and information all presented on a page so neat you don't even have to scroll to see it all. The upper right corner has links for a catalog request, shopping cart, account information, help, a gift registry, and a section just for teachers, with the company's toll-free phone number and a search box directly underneath.

On the left are links for the site's shopping categories: Dresses, Gifts & Accessories, Leotards, Men's, Shoes, Skirts, Tops & Bottoms, Tights, Undergarments, Unitards, and Warm-Ups. Clicking on any of the product categories takes you to another splash page for the category, which features the same basic navigation as the home page, as well as a collapsible left menu bar that allows you to shop by Style, Product Number, Brand, Color or Fabric, displaying a count of how many items are in each category. The bottom of each page displays the current contents of your shopping cart, with options to hide the cart as well as viewing sale items, new arrivals, size charts, and making a request for a paper catalog. A search box is also displayed prominently on each page.

Ground, 2-3 Day Air, and Overnight shipping are available, and shipping costs are calculated by order total, with orders over $100.00 receiving $0.01 ground shipping. Ground shipments are sent via either USPS Priority Mail or UPS depending on package size. Orders can also be submitted via phone or mail, and payment methods accepted are Visa, MasterCard, and Discover.

::: Finding Tap Shoes for My Little Savion :::

We actually let Buster wear his sister's tie tap shoes with tissues stuffed in the toes just to see if he was going to like the class, but we knew that was only a temporary fix. In addition, the dance supply stores around here don't exactly carry a wide range of shoes for toddler boys, so finding one in a decent price range was impossible. A quick glance showed me that the Discount Dance Supply Online Store had 29 different styles of tap shoes, and once I clicked on that sub-category, I was able to sort by Relevance, Popularity, New Arrivals, or Price. I was able to find four different styles of tap shoes in the jazz style that the studio prefers, ranging in price from $17.00 a pair to over $40.00 a pair.

Once I placed my order, I received an almost immediate email confirmation of my order, and then approximately 12 hours later, a second email letting me know that my order had shipped via Priority Mail. Exactly two business days later, I had the tap shoes in my hands. The packaging was a bit large for little 9.5M tap shoes, but they also included a tip sheet for trying out shoes to make sure to not ruin them in case they need to be returned.

The shoes were very nice quality with Bloch taps, and I was pleasantly surprised at how nice they are based on the price (I went with the cheapest option of $17.00 shoes, because after all, this is a three-year-old boy we are talking about!) Based on the quality of the product and the super-fast shipping, I'm sure I'll be ordering from the Discount Dance Supply Online Store again. I'm off to price Beanie's pricier tap shoes there now.