Nowadays it's thought that these methods are ineffective, but there is a need for pointe shoes to mold precisely to the feet of each individual dancer. It has until now been prohibitively expensive to custom-manufacture shoes for each individual dancer (except for major stars), so instead they manufacture shoes in such a way that a dancer can break them in by doing special exercises that not only strengthen the feet and legs, but also bring the shoe into shape. The older methods of "mutilating" pointe shoes were thought to be a shortcut for this.

Nowadays, some companies have been experimenting with 3D-printing pointe shoes, which would allow for a very close custom fit. This shows some promise.