About Us
Our story:Run by swing dancers, made for swing dancers. Aris Allen makes the best dance shoes for Lindy Hop, Jitterbug, Balboa, Charleston, Boogie Woogie, Collegiate and Varsity Shag, 6-count, 4-count, you name it!
Gay Santelmann has been Lindy Hopping since 1996 and started producing swing dance shoes shortly thereafter in 1997, originally selling under the name "Hell's Lindy Hoppers". Andrew Kontola has been Lindy Hopping since 1997 and teamed up with Gay in 2003. They spend their days designing new, cool stuff for incurable swing addicts like themselves. Gay, Andrew, and the Aris Allen team create and ship dance shoes and apparel all over the world from their warehouse near Baltimore, Maryland. They can be found on dance floors from Manhattan to Baltimore and sporadically teach. Their design team is a core group of swing dancers who are tapped for their knowledge, aesthetics, and love of the dance and are integral parts of the decision making process when new styles are added to our line. In addition to the design team, hundreds of dancers in the DC/Baltimore and NYC/Brooklyn areas are consulted at dances where they test our shoes under precise laboratory conditions: grabbing a partner and heading to the dance floor. |
