Why the NYC Ballet spends nearly $1 million a year on pointe shoes

Dancers at the New York City Ballet go through about 7,000 pairs of pointe shoes each year. That’s because traditional pointe shoes break down after only a few wears.

All of them come from Freed of London, which has been one of the world’s leading ballet-shoe manufacturers for nearly 80 years.

We went behind the scenes with the New York City Ballet and Freed of London to see how pointe shoes became such a big business.