Only purchase dance shoes from trusted sources

I recently browsed through the ballet shoes sold on Amazon.com, and I was very surprised at the range of products available.  Some of my favorite items like the Bloch Zenith canvas ballet shoe and Grishko 2007 pointe shoe were available.  There was also a selection of cheaply priced and shoddy looking pointe shoes from sellers like KUKME-SHOP, Smartodoors, Giggle Da, and Luckyst.  The images associated with these products showed turned-in feet wearing clunky, ill-fitting pointe shoes with improperly tied ribbons. 

If you are shopping for dance shoes on the internet, make sure you know what you are looking for.  If you are starting a new type of dance or are changing to a new brand of shoe, try to get fit in a dancewear store.  If you know what brand, style, and size you need in a particular shoe, it’s fine to look online.  To be safest, start your search on big-name dancewear websites with good credibility (discountdance.com, bestpointe.com, grishkoshop.com, capezio.com, etc.).

 If you find a lucky bargain, it’s ok to buy from “mass sales” sites like E-bay and Amazon (dancewear stores and individual sellers often use such sites to sell excess stock or shoes that don’t fit the original purchaser), just make sure you know the product is genuine before you make your purchase.  The seller needs to list all pertinent information including a brand, model, size, and shank (if it is a pointe shoe) (such as “Grishko Elite soft shank size 3.5 4x,” not just a generic title like “women’s ballet pointe shoes”).  It is also customary for sellers of genuine merchandise to post pictures of the brand logo on the shoes and box/bag with the item listing.  Contact the seller and ask questions before you buy any expensive, high-quality dancewear or pointe shoes.  It’s ok to ask how the seller got the shoes in the first place and why he or she is selling them online at a discount.  It’s common for a parent to buy shoes for a teenage dancer who wore them a few times and outgrew them, or who sewed pointe shoes before a teacher disapproved of them.  If a dancewear store won’t take back a product, selling online is really a parent’s only other option in order to not take a complete loss. 

If the seller doesn’t appear to know what he or she is talking about (or is iffy about anything), don’t make the purchase.  A non-expert who somehow got his hands on some Capezio taps without a box probably can’t visually tell the difference between a Cadence and a K360, so just because he thinks it’s one or the other doesn’t mean it really is or that the shoe will work out for you.  It’s better to pay a little more for a sure-fitting shoe from a store or site with a fair return policy than get a deal from a seedy online stranger.