Before you go out and wear your new salsa shoes for the first time remember to never, ever wear them anyplace else but the dance floor. A good pair or shoes for salsa are not cheap and wearing them outside of the studio will damage the bottoms of the shoes and make them much harder to dance in.
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A good pair of salsa shoes will have suede or leather soles. While you are dancing Salsa you will be sliding your feet across the floor very quickly. Having anything other than suede or leather will not permit you to slide your feet and your feet may get too much traction on the dance floor.
If the soles of your Salsa shoes have a rubberized bottom that keeps catching the dance floor and preventing your movements from flowing easily from one to the next you may actually hurt your knees. It's possible for your foot to get enough traction for it to get momentarily stuck to the dance floor. If that happens but the momentum of your body carries you along you can damage the tender ligaments in your legs.
Another quality of proper salsa shoes is a good stable heel. The main purpose of a heel is to help you transfer your weight forward on the balls of your feet. Exactly where it belongs when you are doing Salsa.
Heels are functional but also make your legs look even more slender and long. Just be careful not to get a heel that is either too tall or too narrow. A heel that is too narrow won't give your foot proper stability. A heel that is too tall will also create the same problem for you. Look for a heel on your salsa shoes that is about two inches and are recommended as ballroom dance shoes.
Make sure that any shoes you choose for salsa have good strong straps. You're going to be gracefully dancing backwards quite often while practicing salsa. Having a pair of salsa shoes that you can't strap firmly too your shoes will make you feel uneasy and you will be uncomfortable. Feet that slip and slide around inside their shoes will at the very least cause a callous, and at the worst cause you to twist an ankle.
