Why A Ballet Team Spends $1 Million A Year On Shoes
Published at : 18 Dec 2025
Dancers at the New York City Ballet go through about 7,000 pairs of pointe shoes each year. That's because traditional pointe shoes break down after only a few wears.
All of them come from Freed of London, which has been one of the world's leading ballet-shoe manufacturers for nearly 80 years.
We went behind the scenes with the New York City Ballet and Freed of London to see how pointe shoes became such a big business.
00:00 - Introduction 01:42 - Rehearsals at NYCB 03:02 - NYCB Shoe Room 04:30 - Shoe Fitting 05:52 - Breaking In 07:08 - Making Pointe Shoes at Freed of London 10:25 - History of Pointe Shoes 11:21 - Gaynor Minden Pointe Shoes 14:26 - Grace's Preference 15:52 - Dyeing Shoes 17:16 - Preparing for Performance 18:30 - Nutcracker Performance 19:28 - Credits