The Modern Twist on an Ancient Shoe

Ballet dancers get a high-tech fix for an age-old problem: lousy footwear

By Brett Zarda Posted 05.14.2008 at 2:29 pm 7 Comments

The Capulet Shoe Capulet World

Imagine a shoe so uncomfortable you have to hammer the insole and smash it inside a door to make it tolerable. Now imagine tossing the same $70 shoe in the trash because it shredded into pieces after just 45 minutes. Welcome to the world of ballet. For 400 years, pointe shoes have been built the same way with the same materials, producing bloody blisters for generations of female ballerinas (while their so-called masculine counterparts walk flatfooted with plenty of padding). A papier-mâché manufacturing method of satin, paper, hessian, paste and leather results in a shoe that every 12 year old girl, and a few special boys, yearn to wear but can’t wait to take off. So while you nodded off at the yearly Nutcracker performance, perhaps some sympathy was due for the Snowflake Fairy on tiptoes.

Traditional shoes require ballerinas to literally break them before any plié using archaic inaccurate methods (see video below). Slamming doors, hammers, knives or a strong pair of hands are used to snap stiff potions of the shoes in a ritual so crude it boggles the mind yet so old the industry knows no different. Ballerinas even used to put raw steak in the toe of the shoe to minimize the impact and pain.

“Everyone was suffering inside the same shoes and nobody was doing anything about it,” says Capulet Director Michael Thoraval.

And then came the seemingly wonder-material called d3o.

The sheer thickening fluid that’s been used in everything from soccer balls to ski gear over the past five years, has shifted its powers to the enchanting, intoxicating intense world of ballet. The material provides flexibility under slow static movements but stiffens on impact to protect the dancer’s five little piggies. Shoe manufacturer Capulet World formed nearly four years ago hoping to redesign the shoe. After reaching out to Dupont and their brethren, Capulet learned of d3o and have since incorporated the material into a shoe that can last 20 full performances for just $110. Tests with elite and recreational level ballerinas around the world have received rave reviews in advance of a full launch this month both online and in US stores.

The d3o essentially encompasses the entire shoe with thickness varying between one and four millimeters in different sections. Capulet also replaces the elementary school paste methodology with a more modern approach while maintaining the weight of the shoe. Cognizant of potential resistance from an industry devoted to its customs, the shoe maintains an identical leather and satin outside making the improvements undetectable to dancers and fans. The shoe has already been embraced by the Royal Academy of Dance suggesting backlash should be minimal, if at all; presumably non-existent if the dancers themselves have any say.

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7 Comments

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njz

05/14/08 at 4:48 pm

njz
a whole new market has been right there for adidas (or puma...in deference to both brothers!) all these years. i cannot believe that the classical in ballet meant torture. what could have been the justification for the lack of technology that would allow for fine, painless dancing?

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dewane

05/14/08 at 5:04 pm

Interesting...steak in the shoes for support. Maybe some meat tenderizer would help soften the apparel.
D.

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Tor

05/14/08 at 7:38 pm

As a male who did ten years of professional ballet training, I resent an ignorant comment like, "while their so-called masculine counterparts walk flatfooted with plenty of padding". There is nothing padded about soft ballet slippers! Ballet can injure a dancers body in many ways, pointe is only one of them; though dancing on one's toes seems more unnatural, dancing with legs turned out causes many more ballet injuries.

The first result of a google search for "male pointe" is a page explaining why some male ballet dancers DO pointe (not just the "special" ones), and that some companies even have male dancers performing on pointe!

Shame on the author of this article- popsci is supposed to be about science news, not displaying your ignorance and contempt for something you don't understand.

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empjag

05/14/08 at 10:08 pm

HA! Tor did ten years of ballet!

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perfectaj

05/15/08 at 1:14 pm

I had a sample of the Pointe shoe d30 in NY. I was a guinea pig for them when they were developing it.
At the end of testing day I stole the pair they gave me and still dance with them..
I can work my foot effortless, and have all the necessary support/strengh where it is required.
Well done to Capulet, finally made it.

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Miu

05/19/08 at 9:15 am

http://news.sky.com/skynews/article/0,,91221-1316056,00.html

why could not Puma/Addidas do it? no idea

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comfortable1

06/02/10 at 3:43 am

Those beautiful women and men who offer so much joy to us with their dancing. They end up crippled and riddled with a body that has been overused and manipulated into unnatural positions. Now the feet you can imagine are punished beyond any repair. Sad but true. Oh for the love of art. This is pleasing to hear that maybe their feet may survive with more comfortable dance shoes.

Sean
www.comfortablefoot.com

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