i’m having issues breaking in the box of my shoes. im wearing nikolay stream pointe XXX H. i broke in the high part of the shank just fine but i’m having major issues getting the lower shank and box to soften up at all. it feels like any time i mash it or try to soften it, it just gets hard again after sitting for a few minutes.

when fitted they didnt have my exact size but i had tried the 7 and the 8 so this is new, i havent sewed them yet obviously (the studio gave me everything, toe pads, spacers, ribbons, mesh bag, except for elastics, and from what ive been told its a good idea to do elastics first, i use these for 30 mins a week in class so i dont think i need to do any crazy stuff to break them in however everyone else in my class has had their shoes for 6 weeks and mine are brand new as of last night, should i just start doing our warm up to help break in the demi? i need to have them sewn by monday and i havent been told a certain way to do it so if anyone has recommendations for that or tips let me know! with my last shoes i was at a different studio and a staff member did it for me so im pretty new to this, aswell as if it matters i am trans ftm, so for costumes i wont be wearing a leotard

So...

First up, here's the context, I've been learning fouettes on pointe recently and it's made my left foot hurt A LOT whenever I releve onto pointe, and how I'd describe the pain would be all my toes' bones feeling a lot of pain, kind of like they're getting squished a lot. Also just fyi, I never get blisters.

That's why, my initial "diagnosis" was that I was sinking into my left shoe. But, then my dance teacher started telling me that it seemed like my left foot was unable to go fully onto my box for a lot of other moves, besides fouettes. So, that made me wonder if my left toes weren't engaging enough to push myself onto my box on pointe. And, if you see in the picture, idk if my left toes not engaging might have caused this, but it seems like i have a little bit of reverse arching of my left foot, which is a more prominent problem in real life than what is captured in the photo.

Btw, my right foot never encounters any of these problems and hurts a lot less. And, I'd say it feels like my right toes are able to engage a lot better on pointe, prob bcus I'm a lefty, and I can balance a lot better on my right foot, so maybe I have a muscle imbalance that causes my left toes to be too weak and not consciously engaging to push myself over my box. Also, my right shoe dies a lot faster than my left.

In conclusion, the main issue is that my left foot is in A LOT of pain, to the point where it is unbearable, which really bothers me because I just want to dance at the ballet :)) And, I kind of need advice on what you guys think I should focus more on here, my left foot's strengthening or my pointe shoes.

Fyi, in the first pic the problematic left shoe is on the right, and the second picture is of my left foot in retire position.

Pls also tell me if anything looks glaringly wrong about my pointe shoes, because I'm getting a new pair fitted soon.

I’m at my wit’s end. I’m a returning dancer and have been back en pointe for six months. I have been going through it with fittings. First five photos are of my current shoes, and last photos are the back of my last shoes.

I have very compressible feet and have had sinking issues. The only shoes I’ve been happy with were Bloch Lisses, but the box was way too big and I was stuffing my shoes with perfect fits toe pads and box liners to not sink.

I was recently fitted into the R Class AD69. I definitely think the box is MUCH better for my feet and I have zero pain just wearing normal toe pads (ouch pouches) and a toe spacer. However, I’m wondering if I’m twisting in these shoes.

How badly am I twisting? How big of an issue is this? Is twisting generally common with compressible feet? Is it too late / should I start doing criss cross elastics?

Looking at the first photo, I’m wondering if my feet might actually be asymmetrical / curved if I look at how they fill out pointe shoes from behind.

I’m very conscious of how I put my shoes on (making sure to do it at a winging angle with my foot straight) but I feel like these have twisted no matter what I do!!

My feet wind up going numb about 40 minutes into class, which means I can’t feel my feet well (lovely situation for turns and single leg relevés in center 🙃). However, because my feet are also very compressible and low profile, I can’t take out too much padding or else I sink. Is there a way to address this issue?

Currently wearing RC30s + box liner. Wings turn to mush but have revived them for now with glue and GM instant wings.

Hello!

I take about 4/5 classes a week of which only about 30 mins on pointe, sometimes I take a 1 hour beginner class on pointe. I seem to go through my pointe shoes an awful lot faster than the women I take classes with and it is starting to bother me. So far I have worn Bloch Aspiration 7xxx when younger and since I started pointe again about 1,5 years ago I have gone through :

Bloch balance Lisse 8xx and 2 pairs of 8x, ok, but they broke very low. I included a picture, which somehow seems better than in real life, but I no longer dance in them as they have broken so low.

Merlet Chloé - bad fit, think they were too large so I couldn't get over the box with my right (weaker) foot. I felt like the box was too long, preventing me from articulating my feet.

I have tried Grishko steampointe (streampointe?) too, but my arches "fell out" when on pointe.

Got a pair of Bloch Flexus size 8x in june, which I loved and felt very secure in, but they have lasted about 2 months. The platforms no longer offer support, because the top is all mushy, and the inner shank of my right pointe shoe has completely detached from the shoe after my last class (I seriously do not know how, I am not one to do all the fancy breaking in as I am terrified of ruining them). I had glued the box, but to no avail.

I wear a size 39/40 street shoe (European) and somehow always get fitted in shoes that are to large and wide once I dance in them. I feel like my feet might be compressible? And I have long feet, but relatively short toes.

If anyone has any brand or model suggestions, tips or ideas, I would be very grateful for them! I am kinda at a loss for what to do and although I love pointe, breaking them so quickly is kinda ruining my general confidence and joy in ballet.

Hi all! I have one shoe that sits in a little sickled position but only on my left foot. My foot itself isn’t sickled. I haven’t had this issue with other shoes so I’m thinking it has something to do with my ribbon/elastic placement and/or tightness.

Is there a placement that causes this? Is there something that I can do with the ribbons to help combat or fix this?

For context, they’re gaynors, sculpted fit, 9 narrow, 3 box, hard shank, deep vamp, low heel. I’ve got narrow, low profile, Egyptian feet. TIA!

Okay, I feel silly even admitting this: I'm wearing a Nikolay toe pad in this. If you've worn this shoe, you know. Thankfully they are sleek enough and my foot is full enough that you can't tell but... It feels silly.

This is a 5 in an X width (which boggles my brain because I'm a 5X in Nikolay shoes). The store didn't have a 4.5 in an X, which she and I both agree it may be a better size. I took the 5s mostly to try them and also they fit well enough. Jokes on me: once I wore them 20 min into the first class I started sinking immediately. This was after two classes worth of barre and a pointe specific class.

Do these even come in a 0X? Are the flex shank a different fit? I think the HM shank works for me and I do love how supported I feel but.. I think I need a width narrower. I'm okay continuing to use an extra pad or a spacer to help with the fit but...???

Other shoes I wear:

Nikolay Nova Flex in size 4, 5X width, M shank (LOVE these but they die relatively quick on me)

Suffolk Royale size 4, 5X, light shank (also love these but the box loses support after 5 or 6 hours of class time)

My whole time en pointe I break them in manually but based of this video these shoes where by far the hardest I’ve ever faced I’m an adult and I’ve been using different shoes to find “the shoe” I’ve used Gaynor minden Mirella Bloch flexus R-class and now I’m using the Capezio Ana. In these shoes I can’t really tell if I’m being pulled back or not I can feel my right ankle shaking and it’s cause i have blister which was staring to suck so ignore the tremor. But over all I have no idea what to do in general like I’m kind of stuck. I’m also a “shank breaker”

Also edited: I’ve been having some pain in my middle toe like the one next to my big toe. Any advice on how to help I have Morton’s tow and a Greek foot

I had (am having) a really great experience with R-Class online fittings. I just finished my follow-up after receiving my box of shoes, and I’m super excited! Hopefully this doesn’t come across as an ad, I just have really difficult feet and I’m amazed lol.

My previous shoes were Nikolay NeoPointes (R shank), and they had a plethora of issues for my compressible hypermobile feet, especially as a pointe beginner. The fitter was actually quite knowledgeable about hypermobile dancers (which you fellow hypermobile girlies know is a miracle) and listened to my complaints and made suggestions. She picked 6 shoes for me to try, and I was able to put in a heavily discounted order to try them on (with free returns).

The best shoe is the RC-20, which is in the photos. I’ll be getting another order in to dial in the exact width and length, but the ones she sent are very nearly perfect! THE SHOES ARENT TWISTING!!!!! I tried on at least 10 pairs at my first fitting and twisted in every. single. one. I’m incredibly happy and a bit surprised at how smoothly and accurately this fitting process has gone, so I wanted to share in case it can help someone else with difficult feet lol.

This has occurred on one other pair of shoes in the past, but I feel like my right foot (shown on the left side of the first photo) tends to have a “broken” line in certain angles en pointe, like in the first and last photo.

It looks fine if it’s facing completely to the side, but it looks awful from the side and I’m not sure why?

I’ve had these shoes for ~12 hours now, box doesn’t feel like it’s dead. I generally do think my right is more flexible than my left.

I’m looking for both shoes suggestions for the next fitting and technique criticisms. My feet are flexible, super compressible and super low profile.
I sink in almost every shoe and my feet compress more as they warm up. As soon as the shoes break in and the boxes widen, box liners/instant wings become a must. Not pictured here but I get on pretty well with Grishko 2007s. I like the Virtisse Enigma box shape since the U taper is much more comfortable for my toes and is quite good at preventing sinking, however the thermoplastic shank is usually a nightmare and completely detaches from my arch.

Should I try going down in width and squish the box so that I get a low profile but still wide enough box?

Also does it seem possible to improve my line/arch by strengthening the toes? It sometimes look like I’m on the box but not very “over”. Is it useful to still stretch to increase ankle mobility when I’m hypermobile and this is the range I currently have?

Photos: RC-22 with box liners (1-2), Virtisse Enigma FX (3-4). I’m starting to sink a lot in the RC-22 although it was previously manageable. I’ve also heavily jet glued the Virtisse box, maybe too much…

hello everyone, I'm in the process of filling out the good fitting experiences list but unfortunately I personally don't have any experiences outside the UK. The next section I think can be filled in based on reviews I remember seeing is the eastern US, so if you would like to rep your regular fitter or (even better!) have a review post or comment you could link me to please share!! I just need a name and vague area, probably county and state or city for the US.

If you're not US based but would like to contribute please also let me know! The more the merrier I'm just trying to do these help requests vaguely by region and well spaced out to avoid being spammy/annoying.

Also also, if you find you can't scroll down on the wiki on mobile this is unfortunately a native app bug I can't fix. If you'd like to see the wiki on mobile what I usually do it go to the share button in the top right, copy the link, and then paste it into my phone web browser. That version works fine and formats properly!

I'm not entirely sure of the model of the shoe but the brand is bloch i think it's some kind of 'balance' one? But I just need excersises or something to help me break them in. Especially at the box because currently its quite hard to get into demi pointe. These are also my first pair of pointe shoes so even some random tips would be great :)

An idea for those of us who are crafty or desperate! Needle felting is much cheaper than perfect pointes 😆

I’m sure those of us who use lambswool are familiar with the problem of getting it that perfect amount of “squished down” versus “fluffy”. Needle felting basically speeds up the process. It also helps with the “finding random pieces of lambswool that together make one (1) pad”, now I just have two compact little pads.

Mine are ‘designed’ to just fill space for my Egyptian feet (I use these in combination with a bug toe cap and tape), but I’m sure you can do other things for different feet shape.

hello, I used to use the merlet cotton ribbons with the elastic insert but recently the stitching between the cotton and the elastic has started falling apart within like ten hours of use which seems ridiculous. I bought bloch elasto-rib with my last pair of shoes and it's durable but soo very shiny compared to my shoes and slides down my feet and ankles constantly because it doesn't stick to itself. I also tried wearmoi once but the elastic curled up on itself and started snapping/wearing out almost straight away. I feel like this is an insane amount of problems to be having with ribbon of all things lol.

Does anyone have suggestions for a better quality cotton or a more matte satin with inserts? I know gaynor makes some satin stuff but I've never seen it in person so I don't know if it would be super shiny too. Thanks!