Last month, DRN spoke to major pointe shoe manufacturers R-Class and Suffolk about their decision to raise their wholesale prices by 4% to 6% and 15%, respectively. Not long after, we learned that Nikolay had informed its retailers that it was also taking the difficult decision to introduce price increases of 4%, effective October 15.
Like R-Class and Suffolk, Nikolay cites rising costs of raw materials, exchange rates, tariffs, knock-on effects of the war in Iran, including fuel prices and air-freight prices by extension, as contributing to the decision.
“Normally we don’t raise prices till the beginning of the year,” says Christine Boll, Nikolay’s general manager, “but with all of these costs snowballing together, I really had no choice but to go ahead. It’s a cumulative effect that makes it so we have to figure out how we’re going to continue to maintain our profit margins that we’re accustomed to having to meet our bottom line. There’s only one way to do that. If everything else is going up, we have to raise our prices, as well.”
Reactions to the 4% Increase
Boll describes the increase, which will bring the cost of most Nikolay models to roughly $140, as a “modest” adjustment. “I was trying to stay competitive in the market,” she explains.
DRN’s previous coverage of pointe shoe price increases prompted reactions from retailers and dancers alike. “This retailer is extremely unhappy,” wrote Kristin Ruggieri, owner of Attitude Dance Boutique in Norwalk, CT, in a comment on Instagram. “Time to shift our buying to brands that can deliver product and keep pricing steady.”
Nikolay is trying to sustain positive relations with its wholesale accounts through open and frequent communication. “The reps are reaching out to talk to their accounts directly, and we have a Facebook group for our Nikolay retailer community that I post in at least once a week, sometimes twice, to try and keep everyone up to date,” says Boll. “I haven’t really had any complaints or pushback about the price increase so far, other than that [the retailers] are just trying to figure out when exactly to implement it on their end.” She notes that Nikolay gives stores a 30-day window to implement the new MSRPs “so they can stay within our MAP minimum advertised prices] policy.”
Streamlining Range and Expanding Production
Nikolay has made other significant announcements recently, including the discontinuation of several pointe shoe lines. “The 3007, [3007 Pro, and 3007 Pro Flex are] being replaced by the 3007 Prima, which launched about a month ago,” Boll says. She adds that while the Nova is also being discontinued, Nikolay will continue to make the Nova Flex, which “is more popular and always has been.”
Nikolay’s Miracle shoe is being replaced by a new shoe called the New Miracle, which will be produced exclusively at the brand’s new second factory in Kyrgyzstan from December. Until then, “we will still be making those back orders [of the old model],” Boll says. She adds that she is still waiting for confirmation on whether Nikolay will fulfill its existing back orders for SmartPointe, another style being discontinued.
When asked about the reason for the discontinuations, Boll explains that “as we continue to launch new models and develop old models with new technologies, we can’t just add on and add on, because it slows down production. We want to streamline production and get back to a place where we are delivering in a timely fashion again.”
Nikolay anticipates that the Kyrgyzstan factory will play a big role in fulfilling the company’s lengthy back orders—which date back to the second quarter of this year—by the first quarter of 2027. Until now, all of Nikolay’s shoes were made at its factory in Moscow, which was always “at full capacity,” says Boll.
Emily May is the editor of Dance Retailer News.