Why has the pointe shoe been so resistant to change?

https://dancemagazine.com/pointe-shoe-innovation/

by onemind • 1 month ago

69 19 1 month ago

elevation2• 1 month ago

While we’re on the topic, on the last year, NPR interviewed an expert who warned of lifelong debilitating injury (pain walking) that dancers developed by going en pointe too young. The woman recommended waiting until 15. But searching for this to share with dancers, I cannot find the interview now. Did NPR retract this?

simplymild2• 1 month ago

While growth plates close at this time (~13-15), in preprofessional training it's more usual to start from about 12. Basically,one's feet need to be strong enough to protect growing bones from permanent damage, thus safely starting pointework has more to do with having enough strength from previous training (2+ years) than fully closed growth plates. For more information: https://www.ortho.wustl.edu/content/Patient-Care/3496/Servic...

SilverElfin• 1 month ago

Yep, even dancers who go on point later end up with injuries and issues like arthritis. It’s really that point is a bad idea, period. It’s an archaic holdover. For some reason people don’t view it negatively like foot binding.

wahern• 1 month ago

I can't watch ballet. I actually, not figuratively, cringe when they do en pointe. It's like watching somebody cut themselves or even be in situations where they might, like an amateur youtube cook chopping unsafely; just physically and psychologically too uncomfortable for me. I don't have a problem with blood or injuries, per se; watching a surgical operation is tolerable, as long as I believe it's not actually painful. Maybe if I forced myself to watch enough ballet I'd learn to accept it's not that painful during the performance (is it?), but it'd take more effort than I care to put into it. Something about discrete, focused pain just triggers me. I also have to look away when getting my blood drawn or given a shot, and don't want to watch others getting the needle, either.

Conversely, I think one of the reasons some people are mesmerized by en pointe is the idea of it being painful, in the moment or at least the training/practice, and the manifest dedication involved.

kjellsbells• 1 month ago

I don't recall NPR, but I do recall an interview with one of the US Olympic team doctors who has done extensive work on pointe and dance-related injuries.

see: https://selinashah.com/press/interviews/

ziofill• 1 month ago

Yep, that’s what happened to my wife… she started rhythmic gymnastic and ballet at 4 in Eastern Europe in the 90s with a brutal coach, had to stop at 12 for an injury, and she has been having chronic pain and arthritis since she was 17. Anything taken to the extreme can have lifelong consequences.

tomaskafka• 1 month ago

Reminder that coach is not your friend, the incentives are wrong. If they burn through 100 kids damaging them for life, and one survives to win an Olympic medal, that’s what counts as success.

hombre_fatal• 1 month ago

And on that topic, our cultures default to shoes that press your big toe in, creating bunions in everyone predisposed to bunions. Just because we think it's cute when a shoe is rounded.

You have to specifically look for shoes that don't do it.

(I recommend Whitins on Amazon. $35 shoes.)

linsomniac• 1 month ago

IMHO, the primary thing you want to look for is "wide toebox shoes", though I just got a second pair of Whitin and they are my primary day-to-day shoe.

I've got massive bunions and I remember as a kid (in the '70s-80s) that shoes for my big feet seemed to come in one width no matter the length. A size 8 and a size 10 seemed to be about the same width, the 10s just looked clownishly long. It was like I was wearing canoes on my feet.

I have giant bunions which thankfully don't bother me unless I put them in the wrong shoe, then every step is a world of pain. Finally in my mid-50s I was like "Wait, what is this 'wide toebox' shoe, that sounds like just the ticket. And it absolutely was.

Pro tip: Unless you have a narrow foot, try a cheap wide toebox shoe.

dredmorbius3• 1 month ago

Can you give us anything more to go on as to where or how you heard this?

Was it NPR specifically, or your local NPR affiliate?

Keep in mind that "NPR" programming often consists of actual network programming, independent works distributed by NPR, and productions from either affiliated subnetworks (e.g., "MPR", Minnesota Public Radio, PRI/PRX, APM), and in cases individual affiliate stations (WBUR, WAMU, WNYC, WHYY, KQED, KOUW, KUTX, KCRW, etc.), or other noncommercial radio networks (e.g., Pacifica). And increasingly podcasting networks.

Using NPR's site search, the most recent story focusing on a specific ballerina's injury story is from 2017, on Fresh Air (WHYY) "From Injury To Recovery, A Ballerina Fought To Retire On Her Own Terms" <https://www.npr.org/2017/07/10/536434340/from-injury-to-reco...>. It's possible that that replayed more recently. Or that you're loosely anchored in time.

There's a story more closely matching your description, though focusing on gymnastics, in USA Today, March 2026, "How two painful sports stories underscore girls' unique injury risks" <https://www.usatoday.com/story/sports/2026/03/08/girls-great...>

elevation2• 1 month ago

My memory was that this was an NPR story, the local affiliate has distinct production values that I believe I would have noticed. However, even searching the local affiliate's site only yielded the stories you referenced.

devin• 1 month ago

Avery Trufelman does an incredibly well-researched podcast on clothing of all kinds by the name of Articles of Interest. They did a whole show on the pointe shoe. You can check it out here: https://articlesofinterest.substack.com/p/on-pointe

xp84• 1 month ago

She's one of the best among the 99PI alums.

gcanyon• 1 month ago

I've seen the pictures of ballerinas' toes -- in this era of 3D printing is there no way to distribute the load up to where the foot widens into the heel?

jolmg• 1 month ago

In 2023, the German company act’ble released a 3-D-printed and knit shoe, act’Pointe. The shoe features a scored sole made from a rubber-like elastomer and a compressive “skin” that covers the entire foot.
Dancers are taught to make everything look a certain way. There has been innovation in ballet, but always in a small angle, and in a very rigid system
No matter how comfortable or functional, unconventional shoe designs tend to be a hard sell in the ballet community—often because they look different, featuring nontraditional materials or shapes.

The act’Pointe shoes look good IMO and they do precisely what you suggest. Not sure how well they sell given what they say Re: the culture being rigid on choice. If they don't sell well, it could be a cultural problem or one of affordability if it's e.g. patented.

al_borland• 1 month ago

I think the affordability would depend on how long they last. I watched a pretty lengthy video on point shoes once. They were decently expensive and almost disposable. They do not last long, especially for professionals. I think they said some might just last a day.

There is also a whole process of customization, where the dancers spend quite a bit of time bending the shoes to their will and tweaking them to their liking.

I’d the 3D printed ones don’t last long enough to make up the price difference, or can’t be tweaked and tuned in the same way, those could both be problems.

I’d also imagine if a dancer learned in one style of shoe, they may just be comfortable with it… like Linus Torvalds maintaining an ancient obscure version of uemacs, just because that’s where is muscle memory and comfort zone is.

dredmorbius3• 1 month ago

This is an interesting dynamic with a number of elements in play which might have carry-over to other realms of new technology adoption (or resistance):

- A small and specialised market.

- Numerous gatekeepers, each of whom might exert a veto (dancers, teachers, company directors, etc.).

- Highly subjective judging criteria, with benefits or limitations of alternatives not being evident possibly for a long time.

- A high level of highly-interdependent skills. A dancer's performance literally turns on her shoes, and a whole set of muscle-memory, training, technique, and expectations are based on a familiar product. Changing this is probably anxiety-producing.

- Careers are relatively short, lasting perhaps 10--20 years, rarely longer. Taking big risks on equipment may have low appeal.

Balancing all of this, if there does turn out to be some spectacular advantage to new kit, it's possible that change could happen rapidly. This has been the case elsewhere in the sports world. Shoes for runners, footballers (world or American, take your pick), swimmer's costumes, skiing equipment, etc., have all changed radically over the past 50 years (and were changing well before that). Ballet has strong traditions, but those might well bend.

If you're looking at this from a tech-adoption / tech-rejection / product-management hat, you might consider what the landscapes you're facing or contemplating look like relative to the ballet world, which conditions are similar or different. Small markets might be more resistant to change, though if there's fierce and unambiguous performance differentiation you might have an edge. Vetocracy is a concept gaining awareness in numerous disciplines. Highly-gate-kept or regulated fields tend to advance more slowly. Tightly-coupled systems evolve less quickly than loosely-coupled ones. Long run-times, careers, or organisational viability might allow for greater risk taking, or at least the opportunity for new entrants to launch trying different tools.

simplymild2• 1 month ago

One aspect not well defined in the article is that pointe shoes for professional dancers are tailored items, needing to meet a very specific, individual profile. The shoes that many professional dancers use are hand crafted and heavily customized/made to order for each dancer, who then proceeds to make their own set of adjustments to the delivered shoe: https://www.freedoflondon.com/pointe-shoes/ Ballet is a high precision art form (think playing the violin with your whole body), with different roles/ parts having different requirements for shoes. The shoes are modified to fit each role, some needing a more pliable shoe, and some needing a firmer one. In this case the fact that the shoes can degrade and are able to be tuned/ molded to the need of the current production is a desired trait. However the takeaway is that it's a high precision, variable environment and shoes that can't meet the required operating window aren't useful (either from degradation or design, think tires on a racecar). In regards to newer types of shoes, them being more dependable and longer lasting also makes them less customizable by the dancer - improving their longevity fixes their useful window to a specific operating range. Many of the other arguments are indeed correct - however no product offers the individual tailoring a master craftsman can offer on a platform flexible enough for heavy modding that's better than the current favorites. Some generalizing on my part however IMO this is the crux of the issue in terms of resistance to adoption of new production techniques/ materials

Why has the pointe shoe been so resistant to change?

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