Have you ever wondered how difficult it is for a woman to find a pair of shoes that matches her completely ? Many parameters taken into account to reach the suitable decision : different styles, colors, sizes and of course the elegance and comfort of the shoe. Now imagine how difficult it is to find your perfect match of pointe shoes, as the parameters increase ! Today's article is dedicated to women with the issue called "man-sized feet". When refering to "Long Feet" we mean feet that need shoes in big sizes, like men do. Actually, people with street shoe size 42 and above, seem to be excluded from the market area. If we notice this, we will totally understand why male dancers do not use pointe shoes in their regular ballet practice! Obviously, because… they simply have a harder time to get pointe shoes in their size! There is no chance they will find a shoe that fits in any local store. They are confined do order custom-made shoes, which several manufacturers are eager to make. This situation leads to extended waiting periods (at least a couple of months), paying extra money and the impossibility to return or exchange the shoes in case they don’t fit. This, also, happens with women with street shoe 42 and above. And keep in mind that ballerinas MUST wear their pointe shoes!

 

So, there is a great difficulty for the people with very long feet to find -if not the perfect pair of pointe shoes- at least a pair that fits them. The basic problem with this situation is that big sizes for pointe shoes don't exist in stock and the interested one has to make a backorder. This means if the pair finally doesn't fit her/him there is no chance of returning it, as there is noone else with such measurements to buy it. The positive side of this frustrating situation is that long feet usually have a wonderful upper arch, which is really beautiful when en pointe!

Manufacturers have tried to adjust this situation to reality and in some brands, like Bloch, Gaynor, Grishko and Siberian Swan, we can find some pointe shoes in big sizes - the largest size we can find in stock is size 8 (street shoe 41) by Grishko. Otherwise, as we've mentioned before, we have to make a special customization. Let's find out the largest sizes by brands:

1. Gaynor Minden. The official maker of the pointe shoes for Les Trocs! 

2. Grishko. Two models can be custom-made in big sizes: Grishko's 2007 & Grishko's Fouette. The largest we've ordered for a customer was a Grishko2007 size 13.5!

3. Bloch. The largest Bloch pair of pointe shoes was a 10.5 but we guess they also customize even larger shoes.

4. Coppelia by Casimiro Danza. Its biggest size is 46 and it is available in different colours.

5. Siberian Swan. Rudolf is the first male pointe shoe ever! Its sizes go up to 13 (47 street shoe size). This model customized is maybe a good option for women with long feet as well.

To confirm the latest statement, we will recount you one of our fitting cases...

Our case's central hero is called Julia, she's 31 years old and has been dancing by the age of 3. After a big break of 10 years she continued her dance classes at the age of 28. She contacted us to arrange a fitting appointment after learning for the first male pointe shoes by Siberian Swan, called "Rudolf". She described her feet as "man" feet, because of their large and wide measurements (Right foot : Length - 285 mm, Width - 109 mm, Girth - 270 mm / Left foot : Length - 280 mm, Width - 115 mm, Girth - 274 mm). Also, strong but not that flexible, with bunions that hurt her even with her street shoes. To provide you a better understanding, let's consider her height as well,which is 5'11'' (1,80 cm)!

Her previous experience en pointe concerns two models of Bloch (Serenade 9D and Serenade MKII 9D), both too small and not wide enough (ok, the second model was a bit larger, but still had not enough space for her). Her heels were falling out of the shoes and didn' t even gave her space to wear protectors - when tried it ended up being just as painful. At this point we were surprised when she told us "I' ve gotten fitted twice in different states and I’ ve been told I should maybe not wear anything in the shoes for protection to get as much room as possible. How terrible!". "I’m open to any brand shoe (doesn’t HAVE to be the Rudolf brand if you believe something else would work better), I am so very hopeful that there are shoes out there for me.", she added.

"Our website is providing an online pointe shoe fitting service for dancers from all around the globe”, says Inna Mayorova (Greece), owner of the bestpointe.com . "We are thrilled about the Rudolf model and already have dozens of pre-orders”.

Customizing the perfect pointe shoes for you will remain our passion!

Feel also free to fill out our questionnaire if you need our opinion about your own pointe shoe sizing and models and let’s get fitted!