The "Nike" Pointe Shoe

          This has been out in the ballet news for a while and I thought that it would make an interesting blog.
  
     I saw a lot of pictures and heard rumors that Nike was making a pointe shoe. It turns out that a design student, Guercy Eugene made a "new and improved" design of the pointe shoe called the "Arc Angel" with the Nike logo on it for an assignment.
     
     A pointe shoe is a satin ballet shoe that is designed to allow the dancer to stand on her pointes (toes). Pointe shoes are handmade and are hardened with glue and have a box that is made up of layered materials and glue. These are the different parts of a pointe shoe:

  The pointe shoes that Eugene designed are more sneaker-like. Theoretically "Arc Angels"  are supposed to prevent sickling because it has theraband-like elastics. They are also supposed to last a lot longer, about 8-10 weeks. Most pointe shoes can last anywhere from a day to 4 weeks depending on how much dancing you are doing. this is the design that Eugene came up with:

     Although it would be cool if Nike did make a pointe shoe like this, I don't think I would buy it because I don't think that it would actually do everything that it says it does and it doesn't have much of a shank which is the part of the shoe that supports the arch. Please comment below!