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Pointe Shoe fitters, London


munchkin16

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I need new pointe shoes and am going up to London next week. Can anyone recommend a really good fitter they trust? (i pay for my shoes myself so I can't afford to make a mistake!) I currently wear blochs but don't really like them... I am interested in suffolks, but are the fitters good in the capezio store? Thank you for your help :)

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We found the staff in the Capezio shop to be a bit off-hand, but maybe we were just unlucky...

 

Edited to add:

 

What is it that you don't like about the Bloch shoes? Could another style suit you better? They have quite a few different ones in the Bloch shop on Drury Lane, and if you take your current pair with you maybe they can advise...?

Edited by taxi4ballet
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We've never tried Capezio shoes because the staff never seem interested in shoes! They're nice, but they never seem to know about shoes (they didn't even know what Character Shoes were). Professionals or experienced vocational students who fit themselves might be fine there.

 

If you can see Tiffany in Bloch, she is an outstanding fitter. I would wholeheartedly recommend her.

 

Dd now wears Freeds and if you can see Beth or Sophie (or Michelle Atfield, who comes in very occasionally), you will get an excellent, and very thorough fitting.

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Has anyone been fitted at Dancia?? I like their large selection but noticed that they were not a certified Grishko fitter (they haven't attend one of their workshops), is that a worry? 

 

I have a really good local fitter but she only stocks Bloch and Capezio which I don't really like; currently have Bloch Aspirations which are OK.

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We had a very good experience in Dancia yesterday. I didn't take the fitters name but she was very thorough and didn't try to push my dd in any particular direction, presumably because they sell a few different makes. DD tried Blochs (but they have limited styles), Gaynor Mindens,a new french make thats name escapes me and came out with Grishko's. They even held the Grishko's while we went over to Bloch to try a wider range there that we didn't end up doing as there was a huge queue and only one girl fitting.

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Munchkin where are you based? You can be fitted with Suffolks at their workshop in Leicestershire. Can also recommend Sophie at Porselli in Norwich if that easier for you but would phone and check her availability for fitting - we had poor experience of another fitter there. 

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I go to the shops in London sometimes even on a weekly basis.

It's very hit and miss at them all depending who you get.

 

I personally hate Bloch the most.

 

However, dancia is pretty good especially if you get emma or an American girl I can't remember her name...

 

Capezio have a few great fitters and capezio pointe shoes are a lot better than they used to be. Capezio also stock Suffolk brand but only selected styles such as spotlight, solo, ensemble.

 

Freed are hit and miss for me. They seem to always want to put my tapered toes into a square box shoe! They even sold me a shoe that was completely not right for me. Plus I find freed off the rack styles break down faster.

 

Sansha are quite good and stock kh Martin, capulet and other brands aswell as sansha. Small shop but sometimes great fitters.

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Surrey, so its only an hour train journey, and I will be there on Saturday to see la bayadere anyway. Think those will be too far to travel as my mum won't take me just for pointe shoes! She doesn't really understand... I would love to get fitted there though :(

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Of course rubyrubyruby. The fitters in Dancia are very nice, but we lost faith in them slightly because once they decided that a certain shoe fitted dd, they only ever brought out the next size up in exactly the same shoe. When we asked to try different shoes for comparison, they were reluctant to do so because they said "these are fine". It was dd's first year en pointe so she wasn't experienced at trying on shoes. We had this problem at 3 different fittngs at Dancia with different people, so it wasn't just one fitter. Fittings were over and done with within 5 minutes.

 

Pointework became more and more difficult, and extremely painful. Eventually dd's teacher sent us to see Tiffany at Bloch, who spent over an hour with us, explaining dd's foot type and exactly what was wrong with the other shoes (box too tapered, shank too hard, vamp way too high). She tried loads of different shoes and when she was happy with the fit, dd said it was like having new feet!

 

So after that we stuck with Tiffany at Bloch, and then, when she left for a while, tried Freed which dd has stuck with.

 

I should emphasise that the problems with Dancia were over a year ago, so hopefully things have changed! :-)

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rubyrubyruby337 mentions Linda and I presume that is the same Linda in Brighton who dd gets her shoes from.  I can thorougly recommend her and she is a certified Grischko fitter.

 

edited to add that Linda only fits Grischko shoes

Edited by porthesia
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Thank you spanner. I see, I suppose that is the problem with such a well known busy shop. It's a shame as their choice is outstanding and they're definitely not doing it justice then! Does Tiffany still work at Bloch?

 

porthesia- are the fittings at her home? What is the fitting like? Yes, i've herd very good things about her but the Grishko only is the one thing that puts me off. I see she assures though that their range can accomodate almost any foot. A day in Brighton sounds nice to me!

Edited by rubyrubyruby337
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We were in Bloch yesterday and it was indeed very crowded.  I think we had to wait for about an hour before fittings.  They seemed very thorough and in fact ended up not selling anything to the girl before us as they couldn't find a shoe that fitted adequately and I felt that was a good sign, rather than persuading her to accept something that wasn't suitable (they gave her Bob Martin's email address).  The only thing was by the time they got to my dd, it was quite late and both the fitters seemed rather flustered by then.  They didn't have the shoe my dd wanted in her size, but she seems quite happy with the alternative.  

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I cannot recommend Bloch highly enough, the staff are brilliant and we have even been in there on occasion for an hour trying every shoe, until everyone was happy, the assistant included.  We have tried Freed (where are not even bars or mirrors to rise up on pointe!, but you hold the hands of the assistant, all a bit shambolic), Dancia, etc. but really Bloch are second to none.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Sorry to revive the old thread but I thought I would update you. Went to capezio and it was almost empty (4:30 on a Saturday afternoon.) I had the attention of two excellent fitters who spent an hour and half helping my picky self find the perfect shoe. They were both very good, especially Kyrie who helped me make a mound of not right shoes before I found ones I liked. Seemed to have a large selection and they also had fun reading my programme from la bayadere and finding the dancers they fit! On a side note they were mentioning (after seeing my old bloch pointe shoes) how many people they had come in recently with badly fitted bloch shoes and how apparently most of the fitters in the covent garden store don't actually dance themselves...

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That's good to hear. I went into Capezio a week or two ago and they didn't even know what soft block/demi pointes were, let alone the fact that Capezio have just re-developed their softblocks. Their products are great, it's such a shame.

 

Still, glad you had a good experience in there, it's always nice to hear. :-)

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  • 1 month later...

Thanks, a lot of useful advice here.

 

Dd needs a new pair of pointe shoes, she's just outgrowing her first pair. We went to a local shop the first time and bought Bloch as advised by her teacher. But I'm wondering now if they were really the best option for her. She said they never really 'broke in' properly.

 

So for the next pair I'm going to take her into town and get properly fitted. But shall I go to Bloch where they obviously only sell Bloch shoes, or Dancia where they sell everything? Or Capezio??

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My personal opinion - based on experience - is:

 

Go to Freed and see if you can see Beth or Sophie (or even Michelle on one of her rare Saturdays)

Or

Go to Bloch and ask for Tiffany.

 

I've had one ok experience and two not-so-good experiences in Dancia. I've had one dreadful and one good experience in Capezio, where you should ask for Kyrie.

 

But my recommendation would wholeheartedly be Beth, Sophie or Michelle in Freed or Tiffany in Bloch.

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Nope - both manufacturers make many different models so there's a big choice in each shop for different shapes of feet.

 

For us the advantage of Freeds is that each maker's shoes are slightly different so that gives even more options - and they can pop the shoes off to the factory for minor adjustments (lowering the vamp, changing the insole etc).

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Thank you, this site is fab!

 

Dd says, and I don't know if she's right, that she needs a softer shoe as her feet aren't particularly flexible. Apparently Bloch are harder and better for flexible feet to give support. Does that sound right?

 

Think we will try Freed anyway.

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I went on my teacher's recommendation to Sansha. The fitter tried every type of shoe on me but wasn't happy that any of the worked for me (I am a mature woman, new to pointe, with wide feet and other peculiarities) and she sent me across the road to Bloch as she thought one of the styles might suit me. I certainly appreciated the time spent looking for the right shoe, and that the fitter didn't want to sell me anything that wasn't right.

 

I ended up with Bloch Sonatas as they are quite wide and the shank is medium strength (if I understood that correctly).

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