Pointe shoe unfit to wear in situations other than informal practice or rehearsal. Under moderate usage, a pair of pointe shoes will typically last through ten to twenty hours of wear. For dance students, this often translates into weeks or months of serviceable use from a pair of pointe shoes. Professional dancers typically wear out pointe shoes much more quickly; a new pair may wear out in a single performance. As a result, most professional ballet companies provide shoe allowances for their dancers to defray the cost of frequent shoe replacement. The lifetime of a pointe shoe depends on many factors, including:
Approach shoe surfaces or in cold conditions. Approach shoe Approach shoes are hybrid footwear that have some characteristics in common with hiking boots, and others with rock-climbing shoes. Like a shoe or boot designed for hiking, a properly fitting approach shoe can be worn comfortably while walking for long distances; like a climbing shoe, it generally has a specialised sticky rubber sole which maintains traction on steeper grades of rock. On more extreme terrain, or when carrying heavier loads, it supports neither task as well as more specialised footwear would. Approach shoes typically also lack effective insulation in the soles, limiting their