M. R. Boots

The first time I was here, there was a middle-​aged gentleman helping me and he was amazing. I needed dance boots for Ruth when I was in The Pirates of Penzance in 2012. He even threw in a longer pair of shoe laces when it was discovered that the laces in the boots that I purchased were too short for my leg. Unfortunately, my 2012 experience seems to have been an anomaly — because the last two times I went to buy dance shoes at MR, there was a thin, young man at the store and he was utterly uninterested in helping me. If they don’t have your size or color and you don’t have the time to wait for a special order, he shrugs, walks away and ignores you. The other problem with M.R. Boots is that they don’t carry a big selection of styles in larger shoes sizes. If you’re a 5 or 6, they have a huge stock of ballroom dance shoes. However, if you’re larger than a size 6, you will need to order your size. Of course, this means that you can’t try on what you’re ordering and you may find yourself out of luck if they shoe you ordered doesn’t fit or isn’t what you want. Also, I don’t know what the return policy is for special ordered shoes… so, you may end up eating the cost of the shoe if it isn’t what you want. It’s a shame that this place is so badly run because I really like to support small local businesses like M.R. Boots. I won’t be back. I hope the owners take note and find themselves a new salesperson that will actually deign to assist customers.

I found myself in this store on a whim hunting for some new shoes for swing dancing. It’s advertised more as a western apparel store than a dance shoe store, but they carry my favorite brand of shoes (Aris Allen), so I thought I would give it a shot since I wanted the shoes for a dance that night.
And I was pleasantly surprised! They had a nice selection of swing dance/​ballroom shoes, mostly by the company Very Fine. I had a great conversation with the guy who was working, he was friendly and helpful, and it was generally a great experience. He even punched extra holes in the shoe’s straps and cut them down because they were too long.
Great service, reminds me why I should shop locally rather than online!
The only reason I give it four stars rather than 5 is that their selection of size 9.5 and 10 shoes (my size) was disappointing in comparison to their smaller sizes — I would love to see them have a bigger selection in all sizes!