Freed of London. Pointe-shoe maker Freed of London employs 24 full-time artisans, who make about 30 pairs a day. They create stock and custom shoes for dancers at top companies, like ABT and the Royal Ballet. Many of the makers stay at Freed for their entire careers — sometimes upwards of 30 or 40 years. Like a painter's brush, a ballerina's pointe shoe is her most important piece of equipment. Pointe shoes extend a dancer's range of movement and allow them to stay suspended in the air and move more quickly across the stage. Since their invention in Italy in the 1800s, they've come to define ballet as we know it.