I really felt like I was visiting Santa's workshop as I toured the Grishko Ballet Shoe Manufacturing Company today. I learned alot about the history of this ballet shoe and how it is made. They truly set the standard in ballet shoes right here in Moscow and these shoes are shipping all over the world.
The workers take great pride in their part of crafting the shoes, whether it is cutting the fabric or molding the last point of the shoe! The goal is that the shoe will stand on its tip toe by itself and it tested as the last step of the process. This man above was putting the finishing touches on the shoe and was proud as he let go and it stood up on its own. This whole process is quite long and difficult. Amazing to see.
History of Grishko
Founder and President of Grishko Limited, Nicolai Grishko was born in Kiev, capital of the Ukraine. His family were distinguished scientists who nurtured in him a life-long respect for the importance of research and scientific data. Graduating from the Moscow Institute of Foreign Relations (an alma mater for offspring of the Soviet elite) specializing in international economy, he spent several years abroad as a young and promising diplomat. Then followed ten years as Professor of National Economy at the Moscow Academy, the major educational centre of its kind within what was then the USSR.
Tamara Grishko, had been a dancer and, like most dancers, had suffered the misfortunes of ill-fitting shoes which were not necessarily right for her feet. With the advent of Gorbachev's perestroika - with its private business reforms - she suggested to her husband that he establish a business to manufacture ballet shoes.
Nicolai Grishko gathered together a carefully selected group of employees who were truly enthusiastic about ballet and who were to become dedicated to developing and producing the best and the safest ballet shoes in the world. They undertook a thorough research study into the production of ballet shoes in Russia over more than two centuries, analyzing the work of the most skilled craftsmen who had supplied shoes for the greatest stars of the Bolshoi and Maryinsky Theatres.
The findings were invaluable and provided the quality control bases for Grishko's new company. Dedicated to the promotion and protection of the healthy feed of dancers - and to reducing the level of injury caused by the wrong shoes - Grishko was determined that a research and analysis programme would become a continuous and important feature of the production of his shoes.
Immediately after the establishment of his company, Nicolai Grishko recruited a young and gifted researcher, Khabira Temeesheva (on the right in adjacent picture). Her love of ballet had led her, together with two other fellow graduates of the Moscow Light Industry Academy, to research and develop new trends in the production of ballet shoes. The finding of this research was to become a doctorial thesis on ballet shoe technology, the only one in the world. Grishko and his new employee embarked upon the exciting task of combining the old secrets of the Russian pointe shoe masters (based on Grishko's research) with the latest technology and the most up-to-date techniques (researched and developed by Temeesheva). Grishko had long believed that one of the main ingredients of success of good shoes was the craftsman's personal interest, responsibility and pride in the quality of his work.
Today Grishko's shoes are all handmade with a craftsman's dedication to his own perfect product.
