Usually practicing with bare feet is
pretty tough on the skin on the bottom of your feet. Likewise,
wearing just socks tends to wear out socks pretty quickly. So
we recommend shoes.
There are two kinds of shoes:
(1)
those with black cotton tops and either red plastic shoes or
white cloth soles. Both of these are lightweight and
inexpensive. They are very easy to put on and take off. They
offer almost zero arch support, have no heel padding and have
a lifetime of months.
(2) laced shoes have quite a bit
more variety. These can be worn in class on a daily basis if
the student prefers. Usually the class selects what color of
shoes they want to wear at formal exhibitions. The traditional
colors are black and white as both look good with cotton
semi-formal uniforms (usually black) as well as silk formal
uniforms. We have included some of the more colorful
alternatives.
If the class chooses to learn and exhibit a
Taoist form (typically Wudang Mountain style) or a Shaolin
Temple form there are particular shoes associated with these
arts shown at the bottom left and bottom right, respectively.
Both these styles wear an oversock so usually the shoes have
top be a half-size larger than normal. |
