No more pancaking pointe shoes! Try brown pointe shoes instead.
Black and Brown dancers, imagine your skin tone being easy to find and never having to pancake your pointe shoes ever again. It would make you feel seen and valued. We see you, understand you, and we value you. Knowing how difficult it can be to find just about anything in our skin tone, we've decided to take on the task of finding pointe shoes just for you.
No, we don't sell pointe shoes just yet and that's okay. We aim to serve and not just earn.
Related post: Fighting Colorism!
Misty Copeland has to pancake her shoes?!?!
Recently the lovely, graceful, and poised Misty Copeland made a short video talking about still having to pancake her pointe shoes 25 years into her dance career. Although there are companies that have been making brown pointe shoes, it's only been within the past five years or so that they've existed.
Today, there are still many Black and Brown dancers who don't know they exist.
Now, we aren't sure if Misty has heard of or been in contact with the brands that we've found for you. However, no one should have to put foundation on their shoes or sourcing brands that cater to brown and black dancers.
5 Places that make and sell pointe shoes for brown dancers.
Bloch Tonal Pointe Shoes
Bloch has partnered with dancers of various skin tones to create their tonal line. The satin flesh tone pointe shoes come in four skin tones in two different styles along with matching ribbons and elastic. While fours shades may not sound like much, the colors still blend with a variety of skin tones within each shade range.
Capezio
Although providing just two shades of brown, Capezio offers more than just the standard pink pointe shoe or a slightly darker beige. The Ava pointe shoe comes in "skintone 55" and in "skintone 60", both being perfect for brown skin tones, yet "skintone 60" (shown in the photo) is the darkest shade.
Freed of London
The London shoe makers have added "Ballet Bronze" and "Ballet Brown" to their colour choices for pointe shoes. The Classic Adult style (seen above) are custom made by hand. So, not only will you get your color, you'll also get your custom fit.
Russian Pointe
From their Jewels Collection, Russian Pointe offers a v-cut or u-cut in three shades of brown pointe shoes to match your skin tone. Your satin brown color-rich choices are "Cashew", "Almond", and "Hazelnut".
Gaynor Minden
Gaynor Minden's satin pointe shoes come in three gorgeous shades of brown to compliment a wide range of melanin skin tones. From lightest to darkest, "Cappuccino", "Mocha", and "Espresso".
Who We Are
My Nude Shade is an online store to help you find brands and products in your complexion. Whether we carry your favorite brands or not, we'll help you get matched with your shade. We carry products from Blendz Dance Apparel, Browndages, and Mariia Dancewear.
Knowing that we bring you the products that match to your complexion and our founder has a background in fashion design, how would you feel if we created our very own line of pointe shoes?
Let us know down in the comments.
