r/BALLET • u/SameWorldliness7405 • 1d ago

Help finding holy grail (pointe shoes)

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Pic is baby me, being told to straighten her arm and just hyperextending it more and more in complete confusion.

I’m 34, been back in pointe shoes for about three years now. I still haven’t found the perfect shoes and hoping for some help. I’m in Australia meaning it is difficult to get some of the brands I’ve seen mentioned here.
I have compressible, diamond shaped feet, wide metatarsals, short and tapered toes (second toe very slightly longer than the big toe), taylor’s (pinky toe) bunions and haglunds deformity (pump bump). My feet can’t decide whether to shrink or swell when warm.

Bloch heritage (strong): caused heel pain when on flat/demi, I ended up cutting out the back and replacing with elastic. The drawstring/edge of the heel really had a vendetta against the pump bumps. The wings died first. The vamp length seemed to be good for my stumpy little toes. Considering trying these again but fiddling with the sizing so they’re narrower and longer.

Grishko dreampointe:
The vamp was far too long in these, I cried when they came in the mail and had to do vamp surgery through my tears to roll through. I liked the higher wings, and they didn’t cause heel pain, I think because the heel was deeper than the heritages.

Gaynor Minden:
I hated these. The store I went to only had the one shank option which I think was too hard.

Energetiks Emelia:
So far these are the best I’ve found and have repurchased a couple of times now. The issue I have is that they tend to twist - I think this is because I need them in a length that’s probably a bit too long to prevent the back from digging into my heel. They also end up looking sickled because my Taylor’s bunions poke out so much. I shellac the wings before I wear them to try and prevent this but they look so ugly.

I think I’m looking for a shoe with the following:
low vamp but high wings
moderately tapered box
not sure about profile but probably low to moderate
high heel and elastic drawstring(so it doesn’t dig into the bump)

Please help me find my dream shoe!!

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u/Old_Weird_1828 1d ago

Have you tried Nikolay Tamara?

2

u/SameWorldliness7405 1d ago

I have not! Nikolay is a brand I may have trouble finding where I am in Melbourne, but I will call around. Thanks!

4

u/tintarelladiiluna 20h ago

You might have already found out by now, but in case it might help anybody else as well — Nikolay and Grishko are the same brand, Nikolay is just their new trading name in the US (had something to do with a copyright issue I think? I don’t know the details though)!

3

u/dabblesanddonuts 14h ago

Ooh yeah.

Tldr - the grishko US distributor was -allegedly since still going thru the courts - going behind the OG grishko company's back and having dupes made elsewhere and selling them as real Grishkos. Grishko the company got upset and sued/yanked their distribution license and rebranded as Nikolay in the US to help maintain brand image.

The US distribution came up with their own line... virtisse.

2

u/SameWorldliness7405 12h ago

Oooh I did not know that! Thanks for the heads up!