My Job as a Master Pointe Shoe Fitter
Here we go you guys!
For the most part, I have kept my profession pretty quiet here on my blog. Every now and again I’ll mention it, but I have never talked about my job as a Master Pointe Shoe Fitter.
I’ll start by answering the question most of you might be thinking in your head;
What are Pointe Shoes?
Pointe shoes are used by ballerinas to dance on the tips of their toes and extend the line of their legs. First designed in 1795, a type of flat-bottomed pointed-tip shoe was constructed to allow dancers to leap and jump, as well as dance on their toes. Later models removed the pointed tip, constructing a ‘platform’ to allow dancers to balance better, and later a ‘shank’ was added to allow more support and stability.
There’s a lot that goes into the make of a traditional pointe shoe (turning shoe in European countries). They are mostly made of burlap, layers of cloth, sometimes newspaper, and a paste that is developed to harden the shoe properly. The shank on the inside is extremely compressed layers of cardboard, and satin on the outside! Yes, they are very flammable, and yes, it is basically a pinata for your foot.
If you’d like to watch the construction of a pointe shoe, Freed of London has an incredible video that I’ve linked here.
Lastly, the anatomy of a pointe shoe. This will help make more sense as to why some shoes are better than others, and I won’t seem like I’m speaking another language!
The main parts of a pointe shoe I’ll be talking about today are the Shank, Box, Wings, Vamp and Platform.
Depending on the shape of your foot, one shoe might not fit based on these anatomical aspects of a pointe shoe. As a dancer, it is really important to understand these parts of your shoe so you can understand why one kind of shoe works for your foot and why another one does not. If you’ve got super long toes, having a vamp that is too short can teach you improper technique (knuckling). If you got a square, more Egyptian shaped foot, a tapered shoe will twist and can cause trigger toe and bunions. If you need more support, having a shoe with a soft shank and short wings will a.) not support you at all, and b.) break down much quicker. A good fitter will educate the dancer on why a certain type of shoe would not be the best for their type of foot.
Whew! So much information!
Now that we’ve gone over that, I’ll dive into why it is so important to fit properly.
As a former pro-ballerina, I was fit in a store who’s fitters knew what they were doing. Every fitter in that store had worn pointe shoes themselves, and understood how a shoe should fit properly. Thus, I never had any problems with the health of my feet. It took me 10 years to find my perfect pointe shoe, but through my entire 15-year dancing journey, I never had to worry about being mis-fit. There’s a good chunk of dance retail stores around the US that do not fit properly, and it can cause lifelong injuries.
I’ve started showing this image to a lot of beginning pointe dancers, not to scare them necessarily, but to show them what happens when you don’t take care of your feet, combined with an improperly fit shoe.
A properly fitting pointe shoe combined with proper care of a dancer’s feet will help prevent the following:
Blisters
Bruised Toenails
Bunions (and Tailors Bunions)
Trigger Toe
Stress Fractures
Ligament and Nerve Damage
A good pointe shoe fitter will educate you on the health of your feet, and guide you during your fitting.
Becoming a pointe shoe fitter is such a specialty niche. There’s no program or degree for it, and although some people have felt titled enough to try to create something of the sorts, fitting pointe shoes is hard, and you’ve got to have an eye for it. There used to be a “10,000 hours” to master something, but what really matters is how you practice. Deliberate practice instead of repetition. Every dancer’s foot is different, and if you repeated every fitting the exact same it doesn’t end well. If the “10,000 hours” rule was still relevant, I would have surpassed it by about a thousand this year. I take my job so seriously, with a full understanding that young dancer’s health is on the line.
I have refit dancers for the last 4 years from all over the country out of shoes that were not the right shoe for them, and it’s caused lifelong injuries. The one that has stood out most to me was a 13 year-old who had to have foot surgery for trigger toe at the age of 12 because their fitter put them in a shoe that was too narrow and too short for her feet. It breaks my heart knowing that someone could care so little.
This is where my passion comes from - keeping dancers safe and healthy. While I was dancing, I found joy in helping other dancers succeed. Whether it be from just support, or helping them with a correction I knew how to fix. My old, kind soul loves to help and mentor dancers. I had no idea I would love fitting pointe shoes until I started my training. As a young, aspiring ballerina, I did everything you shouldn’t do with your pointe shoes, and my knowledge could save some dancers (and parents) money.
There you have it! I literally look at feet all day! Let me know if you would like to see more fitting-related posts!
This is all for today!
Tootles,
~ Izzy <3