New York City Ballet dancers use nearly 7,000 pairs of pointe shoes a year. Freed of London is the source for NYC Ballet shoes and ballet companies worldwide.
Pointe shoes have three main sections: the box, the vamp, and the shank, also known as the sole. The box is what makes a pointe shoe and helps to create the illusion of a dancer being on the very tip of their toes. Watching Grace Scheffel, a professional ballerina with the New York City Ballet, customize her shoes and then use them for a performance, it’s easy to understand why pointe shoes do not last long.
Daniel Wong is the Shoe Department Supervisor with the New York City Ballet. Scheffel and Wong discuss the customizability of pointe shoes and the importance of a good fit. Then ballet dancer Scheffel demonstrates customizing and breaking in her pointe shoes.
Then Business Insider goes to the Free of London factory. There, Sophie Simpson, senior sales manager, provides some company history. The factory has 24 shoemakers who make customs, and supply some of the largest ballet companies in the world, including The Royal Ballet in London, the American Ballet Theatre, and the Paris Opera Ballet.
