I've seen the pictures of ballerinas' toes -- in this era of 3D printing is there no way to distribute the load up to where the foot widens into the heel?
I've seen the pictures of ballerinas' toes -- in this era of 3D printing is there no way to distribute the load up to where the foot widens into the heel?
> In 2023, the German company act’ble released a 3-D-printed and knit shoe, act’Pointe. The shoe features a scored sole made from a rubber-like elastomer and a compressive “skin” that covers the entire foot.
> Dancers are taught to make everything look a certain way. There has been innovation in ballet, but always in a small angle, and in a very rigid system
> No matter how comfortable or functional, unconventional shoe designs tend to be a hard sell in the ballet community—often because they look different, featuring nontraditional materials or shapes.
The act’Pointe shoes look good IMO and they do precisely what you suggest. Not sure how well they sell given what they say Re: the culture being rigid on choice. If they don't sell well, it could be a cultural problem or one of affordability if it's e.g. patented.
I think the affordability would depend on how long they last. I watched a pretty lengthy video on point shoes once. They were decently expensive and almost disposable. They do not last long, especially for professionals. I think they said some might just last a day.
There is also a whole process of customization, where the dancers spend quite a bit of time bending the shoes to their will and tweaking them to their liking.
I’d the 3D printed ones don’t last long enough to make up the price difference, or can’t be tweaked and tuned in the same way, those could both be problems.
I’d also imagine if a dancer learned in one style of shoe, they may just be comfortable with it… like Linus Torvalds maintaining an ancient obscure version of uemacs, just because that’s where is muscle memory and comfort zone is.