Ballet Boot mod.

[DR Who 3]

I have had my Devious ballet ankle boots now for going on 3 years and I have made various modifications to them but I never addressed the problem with the toe box crushing/wrinkeling until this week. I have been running to get my excersize and the boots have been on the back burner for quite some time however skiing seasion is here and I started walking in these boots again as they do wonders for my upper leg muscles. The bottom of the toe box was starting to get soft and looking bad so I looked into how real ballet pointe shoes are made and found the Gaynoer Mendon brand that have a plastic toe box. This gave me the idea of using fiberglass cloth and polyester resin to renforce the inside of the toe box on my boots. I put some masking tape in there first and painted some car wax on the tape as a release agent. After using 2 layers of 4 oz. cloth and letting it cure I decided to give them a test last night before I remove the insert and then install it perminatly. All in all this worked quite well and I found the boots much more stable when walking in them. I had no pain any where using my padding schedule.( see older posts) except for a bump on the top of my left toe as the stiffness wouldn't give to allow this bump to push up as it did without the insert. This really wasen't a problem and I walked around for 1/2 hr. before my legs gave out. I can't straighten my legs all the way and my leg muscles get a great work out. I haven't been walking in the boots for quite a while and my ankles are very stiff. I have to hand it to the ladies as they must have more flex in their ankles than us men. I recomend this repair as it restores the toe box to it's original shape and makes the boots look good again. I don't know if a insert could be made and marketed to all interested in repairing their boots but I think this could be posible if the demand was great enough. This homemade repair wasn't that difficult for someone familure with fiberglass work and I'm glad I can report this was a success in repairing my boots. Any questions just send me a message and I'll try to reply. Dr Who 3

[Mike Hinch]

While I do know that management does not want us to repeat too much and most of this I do believe that I already may have posted but it does pertain to this subject here. So tell me if you did anything about the heel being too long. Also I got my BH in leather before I knew woe unwalkable they were. Anyway what I plan to do is put on a pointe shoe toepad over a plastic bag. Then wrap the end of the foot with fiberglass cast material. Put the wrapped foot into the boot and laceup. Just at the moment I have not done this yet. Also what I did about the heel was to remove the tip, peel back the skin cut off the half inch then had to drill out the heelpin hole then trim and re glue the skin and replace the tip. Anyway still working on my totally hand made BH boots knee high with no zip.

[Rockpup]

"Managment"?

[Acin75]

This is a very interesting approach. I had the trouble with my wife's feet fit in the ballet shoes. She complained that even though she can stretch the ankels quite sufficiently, she is almost not able to stand in the ballets for 2 reasons: 1) she has a EU 35,5 footsize and even the smallest EU 36 size appears to be a not enough "snug-fit" for her, and 2) the toe box which you have mentioned before seems to be too soft for her to get enough gripp. She did some Classical Ballet dancing before so she knoes how an en-pointe shoe feels like. I have already thought of taking the toe-box out of a classical ballet shoe and incoorporating it into the Ballet-boot, but your idea with carbon-fiber is ingenious! Do you think that a carbon fiber mouldthat would go between the foot and the shoe would give more stability in general? Can you tell me where one can learn more about how to work with carbon fibre? I know this is not do difficoult and it is a popular working material, yet light, a slightly flexible and very durable!

[DR Who 3]

I don't think you would need to use carbon fiber ( an expensive fix) to strengthen the toe box on ballets as I have found regular fiberglass cloth and polyester resin worked well on mine. I was thinking of using the carbon fiber to cover my heel mod on my ballet boots because of the unique look of the fiber weve would give the heel a nice industrial look. Here again reg. fiberglass has worked in what I have done to modify my boot heels ( see my avitar picture) And yes I have shortened my boot heels by 3/8 inch. I hope this helps. Dr Who 3

[DR Who 3]

I also noticed you need to make the toe box smaller for a tighter fit on the foot. This can be done with some packaging padding material cut in the shape of the inside of the bottom of the toe box. Before I did the fiberglass insert this is what I used to tighten up the fit on my feet I just added thin layers until I had a good tight fit. This didn't do any thing to keep the toe box from crushing and that is why I decided to do the fiberglass insert. I also thought about using a cut down point shoe but rulled that out as the fiberglass was an easier fix. I have toyed with getting a pair of pointe shoes and making my own ballets/boots/ oxfords using some kind of material to cover the shoes and fashion a stiff sole and heel from a composit material. This would require a lot of work and as of now I don't think it is worth it. Perhaps in the future. Pata also gave me the idea of making some ballets from metal/steel or alunimum but this is in the future as well. I really like the purple metal high heels on a ( pictures) post in the ultra heel posts. Dr. Who 3

[Shafted]

I think I remember some time back about using silicone RTV to create an custom fit between the toes and the toebox. Just don't accidently glue your feet into them.

[hhboots]

I also noticed you need to make the toe box smaller for a tighter fit on the foot.

This can be done with some packaging padding material cut in the shape of the inside of the bottom of the toe box.

Before I did the fiberglass insert this is what I used to tighten up the fit on my feet I just added thin layers until I had a good tight fit...

I used a similar approach using some highly compressed packing paper so that it is nearly solid in the toe box and fits pretty nicely around my toes.

However, I've been wanting to make a long term modification similar to what you have described that would create a sort of bridged platform support that is molded to the shape of the end of my foot, just below where the ball of the feet are and under the toes. This would make the toe box fit really snug around the toes and keep your foot resting somewhat on the bridge and would help distribute the weight more to the toe/foot joints and away from from the toes.

However, I am not sure I have the know-how to do this and would be afraid to ruin the boots... I guess I'll have to do some side experiments with fiberglass cloth / poly resin before trying this in the shoe itself.

I also described a few years ago on this forum about having to cut down the heel about 1/2" on Devious ballet boots. Seems to be a pretty common issue, and strange that after all these years, they still make them this way and have not addressed it.

[Rockpup]

HHboots: Pleaser sells the boots without them being intended for actual walking, so it surprises me they work as well for it as they do. They have the lower profile style of the old Qualifetish/Hot Peppers ballet boots but with a stiffer heel from the start.

I did not bother building the boots around a pair of pointe shoes. I just got a pair of boots 2 sizes larger and filled in the toe gap with crushed paper. The toe area of the boots have held up pretty good so far. Better then my actual toes

I also cut off the half inch or so to even up the stance of the boot. Have had a youtube vid showing my first test walk for over four years now.

[CassieJ]

Kind of a late response but... If you go to a Ballet supply company, they sell gel toe pads that are like a small pocket you put your toes in. Then, put you feet in the ballet shoes/boots and it really pads your toes. They also sell sheep's skin that you can stuff the toe box with to fill it out.