Our Instagram Bio includes a special line: "Ollivanders of Pointe Shoes,"
Hopefully most people know this reference - from Harry Potter and Ollivander's Wand Shop. From its premiere book, Sorcerer's Stone, its protagonist gets his very first wand. An iconic line from the scene: "The wand chooses the wizard."
And pointe shoe fitting is very much the same. The crux of which ThePointeShop was founded upon and why it exists is because the pointe shoe chooses the dancer.
It was not very long ago that the way dancers used to get pointe shoes is by buying whatever brand/model their teacher recommended. Foot shape was often not taken into consideration. As time went on, the next popular trend in the early 90s and onward was to take a class of dancers to a brand's brick and mortar store and have them all leave with the same model of shoe.
But now, many thanks to Josephine our pointe shoe fairy and social media, we know this isn't the best way to go about it. Since everyone's foot shape and size is different, fitting according to what your teacher told you doesn't make sense. There are so many factors to take into consideration. And more importantly, there are so many more shoes to pick from!
Cut to today. Not only is getting an individual pointe shoe fitting fairly common practice, but professional ballet companies have a dedicated person to their very craft.
ThePointeShop is so lucky to be the San Francisco Ballet's shoe fitter. A few days a week, Josephine can be seen in the "shoe room." Ever wonder what's in there?
This video gives you a behind-the-scenes look of day-to-day operations at a professional ballet company. What's your favorite wall of the shoe room?