Best Pole Dancing Grip Socks - Get A Good Grip With Our Top Picks (Reviews)
Who would have thought it that if you enter pole dancing grip socks into Google search so many different search results come up? Why yoga socks are perfect for pole, over the knee socks and ankle protectors with grip. Over the knee socks are unlikely to give you any grip on the pole so it seems odd that they pop up – we’d put them in a different category. Anyway, ankle protectors with grip and yoga socks seem to fit the bill. So we’re going to take a look at those now.
It’s a common question that people ask is “can you pole dance in socks?” And the answer is yes. Beginners might find it hard as they use their feet a lot for extra grip, especially when climbing but intermediates, advanced and elite polers don’t use the feet that much so pole dancing in socks is totally possible. It’s just that people don’t tend to do it that much – and that’s because you might slip in them. It’s all about health and safety these days – which is totally correct, of course.
However, yoga socks are the perfect pole dancing grip socks. You can twirl, pivot and spin in them. But you can also prevent falls caused by slipping. They will also be quite useful if doing a
Why Pole Dancing Grip Socks are Great for Polers
Here are some reasons why socks with grip are perfect for pole dancing…
They Protect Your Feet
Climbing or gripping with the pole with your ankles and lower legs can be tough on delicate feet. Those new to pole often point out the crazy bruises on the tops of their feet. This can be minimised by wearing sticky socks or ankle protectors.
Ankle protectors with grip or yoga shoes can be the perfect solution.
They Help Keep Your Feet Clean
Even with the extra cleaning measures brought about by the Covid pandemic, the floors in nightclubs, gyms and pole dance studios is not the cleanest.
Trainers and Platform heels are often discouraged during tricks classes so what do you wear on your feet?
The feet pick up any dirt that is on the floors and polers often have very dirty feet like they have been walking down a dirt track.
Baby wipes are often needed before you put your regular socks on followed by a foot bath when you get home.
Ankle protects and yoga shoes are a great alternative. They are a great way to keep your feet clean. The ankle protectors and yoga socks are washable.
They Help You Grip the Pole
Ankle protectors pull on your foot like a glove. They are tight to get on and off but stay put whilst you dance. They have tacky strips on the sole and the top of the foot as well as around the ankle. These tacky strips offer a brilliant grip on the pole. The ball of the foot is out so you can still pivot.
Yoga Shoes stay on your feet with two small straps that Velcro over the top of your foot. This means that your ankle is exposed so you can grip the pole. They may stop you from pivoting, but that has got to be better than dirty feet.
They’re Great for Slippery Floors
Slippery floors can be a real issue if you wear bare feet or regular socks. Pole dancing grip socks are perfect for preventing you from slipping during and dance moves or the warm up.
The Best Grip Socks for Pole Dancing
Here are some of the best grippy socks and ankle protectors with tack that we could find…..
Best yoga socks
Socks with grippy soles have been around for a number of years but have been gaining popularity over the last few years. They are worn by yogis, trampolinists, gymnasts and those that do martial arts. We can even get slipper socks with the same grips on the bottom.
However, those worn for yoga seem to be the best option.
Yoga socks are fabric socks with grippy soles and a velcro strap that goes over the top of the foot to stop them from slipping off. The great thing about these sticky socks is that you can still flex and bend the feet. Pointing the toes is important in pole and students can still do that in yoga socks. Foot and ankle mobility is not affected in any way.
ToeSox Women's Bellarina Full Toe Grip
The Bellarina inspired by ballet feels barely there. The ToeSox patented non slip sole for secure footing on any surface. Perfect for moving around the pole, and doing Russian splits etc on the pole.
The only issue as we have said in other areas is that they are difficult to pivot in. But if you don’t plan on doing any pirouettes it will be just fine or you could adapt them and sew a faux leather patch on the ball of the foot.
Blochsox Dance Socks
If your not going to climb the pole or require your ankles to grip the pole, these dance socks from Bloch are just perfect. Perfect for Choreo classes where you don’t want to wear heels.
What They Say:
“BLOCHSOX™ gives you stability in your turns, support in your jumps and perfection in your lines. A cutting-edge dance sock designed for dancers to push boundaries with equal comfort and support. With innovative features like a built-in spin-spot, brake lines, grip control lines and enhanced compression arch, the freedom to dance with total control is now possible. Smoother turns, jump support and the ability to hold difficult lines are just a few of the benefits dancers can experience.”
Why we Like Them:
We love these dance socks for pole because they have a pivot spot, and the grip is added behind this pivot spot and the heel. They have some amazing cushioning added to the heel to protect the delicate bones in our feet. They held there shape amazingly, much better than regular socks. The compressed arch helps to show off the lines of the foot when pointing the toes. They have been engineered so that they don’t slide down, which is brilliant. We found that they didn’t slide around on the foot due to the grip control lines inside the sock.
Our number one favourite pole dancing grip socks.
Danshuz Womens Neoprene Slip On Design Cross Wrap
We also we are simply in love with these neoprene cross wrap shoes from Danshuz. They offer protection for the foot with a barefoot feel. Neoprene material ensures a snug and secure fit. they are so easy to slip on and off. No laces is a real bonus. It comes in a tan or black color.
Best ANkle Protectors with Grip
This is an easy one because as far as we know there is only one manufacturer of ankle protectors with tack strips and these are made by Mighty Grip. They are sometime branded with a different name though.
Ankle Grip Protectors are ideal for pole fitness. The tack strips help students to build confidence while protecting their ankles from bruises and injury caused by gripping the dance pole.
They are perfect to use if you are doing intense training and want to safe a bit of energy.
Perfect for beginners who find the pain when climbing too intense at first.
They offer
- Great ankle support
- Reduce or eliminate bruising to the ankles
- Makes climbing and transitions safer and easier
- Great for beginner through to advanced.
- Perfect for Pole Dance Workouts.
They are available in three size
- Small – Children
- Medium – Adult shoe size UK 3-5
- Large – Adult shoe size UK 5-7
Why We Like Ankle Protectors With Grip
We love how the grippy strips grip the pole. They make practising safer, especially for beginners or those advanced students who are training really hard and want to save some energy. However, they can feel a bit tight to get on and off, but they need to be so that the feet don’t slide around when practising.
Frequently Asked Questions
The grip is the main difference. Yoga socks for pole have silicone dots along the sole of the sock. They have straps to keep them on the feet and the ankles are exposed. Ankle protectors are made from stretch elastic material and have been covered in some PVC material – these give grip on the sole of the foot and the heel plus a pivot point is on the ball of the foot.
Everyday socks can be very slippery and are not really suitable for dancing in, or any other athletic activity.
Pole dancing grip socks are hygienic as they keep your feet away from the studio floor. Depending on the studio you go to the floor might be continually dirty, despite extra covid cleaning measures due to the door opening onto a car park or main road.
Both the yoga socks and ankle protectors with grip can be washed, so you can keep them smelling fresh.
Yoga, Pilates, martial arts and gymnastics can all be practised with bare feet or with grippy socks.
There aren’t too many differences between sticky socks used for the disciples mentioned above and pole dancing. They are both grippy and provide your feet with protection. Yoga socks used by some polers are exactly the same socks as used for these sports.
But ankle protectors with grip are different to yoga socks or trampolining socks. They are covered in PCV and not silicone. They have Material/PVC around the ankle giving you grip on the pole during climbs. You would see ankle protectors with the grip being worn in yoga or gymnastics. The ball of the foot is exposed so you can pivot for pirouettes.
Toeless socks are fine for pole dancing training.
Pole Dancing Grip Socks - Final Thoughts
There are many different styles of pole dancing and they all require different styles of footwear. Polers wear a variety of different shoes, such as pole dancing shoes (Pleasers, Hella Heels or Ellie Shoes), Jazz Shoes or barefoot.
If your class requires bare feet but that makes you feel a little uncomfortable. Don’t worry as you will have seen that there are choices available above.
Yoga shoes or ankle protectors with grips are both good options.
But are Pole Dancing Grip Socks worth the money?
They sure are.
If you want to have something on your feet in class but you don’t want to wear heels then they are worth investing in. Regular socks can be dangerous as you might slip in them and unless you wear trainer socks you won’t be able to use your ankles to grip the pole. Trainer socks tend to slip off all the time so you will find that you just end up pulling them up all the time.
Yoga socks usually have straps to keep them on your feet, so you don’t have to keep pulling them on your feet. You will also have bare ankles so that you can grip the pole.
But unfortunately, it’s difficult to find the very best pole dancing grip socks for your needs right away, as they haven’t been invented yet. However, the same socks used for yoga, martial arts and gymnastics should be just fine.
There are, however, perhaps too many options out there.
This is where the carefully researched shortlist of grip socks suitable for pole dancing will hopefully help you choose the right one, but be ready for some trial and error as well.