History

Our story starts in 1980 when Dan Fay, who had already been making shoes for nearly 55 years, formed Fay’s. From the very beginning, we have believed in creating only the highest quality Irish Dancing footwear. To achieve this, all our shoes have always been handmade by craftsmen in our own workshop in Dorset Street, Dublin, Ireland. It is a testament to their quality that they have been worn by many a champion. We supply our shoes to dancers worldwide, including Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Europe, Canada and the United States of America.

From years of experience in manufacture of quality Irish Dance Footwear, our shoe range are customized to maximise your potential, provide durability, with varying degrees of support and flexibility required allowing you to concentrate on your dancing. Furthermore all our hard shoes are made entirely with 100% calf leather. This soft supple leather gives the shoes terrific flexibility, an essential factor for Irish Dancing and puts our shoes at a unique advantage.

Other standard features on all our hard shoes include the flattened toe for support and balance when performing toe-stands, click heels for increased sound and tone during heel clicks, reinforced high density heels or high-tech heels for terrific sharp sound and durability, and our specially formulated millenium tip with many years of improvement and fine-tuning delivering an excellent sharp sound, yet very tough and durable.

We have always believed in creating only the highest quality Irish dancing footwear and are the worldwide leaders in the manufacture of high quality Irish dancing shoes. That was recognized in 1995 when we were chosen to be the original and official shoemakers of dancing shoes for Riverdance. Read more about our Riverdance story.

Fay’s long history sits alongside our determination to always improve and innovate. Our Ultra Light range was launched at the 2014 American Irish Dancing Championships in Montreal, Canada. This is the lightest of all our shoes, designed for dancers who do not want to have to break in new shoes enabling toe stands from time of purchase. Although lightweight in nature, the Ultra Lights will not overstretch and come with the durability expected from Fays dancing shoes.

Now, in 2021, We are delighted to announce that we have got together with the amazing Gavin Doherty to design a shoe to rise above the rest. We will have them in stock shortly and we love our new Gavin by Fays Shoes.