Get to the Pointe — professional pointe shoe fitting

ThePointeShop's relationship with the ballet internet has been interesting, to say the least. Reaction videos and cups aside, the internet is a vast pit of knowledge that continues to get smarter and smarter. But when it comes to pointe shoes, who knows more? Artificial intelligence, or master pointe shoe fitter, Josephine Lee? In this video, it's ChatGPT - aka machine learning - versus Josephine.  In other words, could artificial intelligence fit pointe shoes effectively and safely? What do you think of this new technology? Is it applicable to the ballet world?

Ballet is timeless. Unfortunately, the shoes involved have super short lifetimes. Does this need to change? In this week's reaction, Josephine looks at how shoes were made in the 1950's. And the amazing thing is, pointe shoes are still constructed similarly today. There has been some innovation of the pointe shoe over time - but compared to other industries, ballet can seem like it's stuck in the past. What do you think? Do pointe shoes need to change? Does this effect the relevance of ballet today?

This is a dancer's worst nightmare. And confirmation of an age old superstition that dancing en pointe will break feet. Pointe shoes are meant to be a tool to help you dance en pointe. However, the wrong fit can prove harmful. Injuries and outdated fitting methods are the reason why we exist. To keep dancers safe and dancing for longer. Josephine discusses the rehab pointe shoe she picked for a dancer who broke several metatarsals, part of her lower leg, and has achilles issues.  Rehab pointe shoes are not often a dancer's 'forever shoe,' but for the time being, it...

Cheese grater and pointe shoes? What? This week, Josephine reacted to Maria Khoreva's pointe shoe preparation. And yes, it includes a cheese grater. Khoreva is first soloist of the Mariinsky Ballet in Russia. Even if you didn't know her name, if you love ballet, there's a high chance that you've at least seen her picture. Josephine was pretty surprised to see that Maria is in a Bloch stock shoe. Often times, professionals will have custom shoes based on stock shoe models. But even with some changes made at the factory level, pro dancers often still manually adjust and make changes...

This week - a pointe shoe fitting video! Yay! Your comments asking for more fitting videos are seen. Originally, we had to step away from this format back in 2020 during the pandemic. There were a few attempts with masks and captions, but scheduling got tricky. But when one door closes (at least temporarily), another opens! And thus, reaction videos were born. More specifically Tik Tok reaction videos were born. However, this whole time, pointe shoe fittings are happening constantly. They just weren't captured on camera. But for this video, we connected with 2022 Junior Model, Samantha Striplin! She has...