Founder and President of Grishko Limited, Nicolai Grishko was born in Kiev, capital of the Ukraine, in 1948. 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.

Nicolai's wife, Tamara, 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. 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.

Nicholai and Tamara Grishko

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, Grishko recruited a young and gifted researcher, Khabira Temeesheva. 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 ad 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, therefore, Grishko's shoes are all handmade with a craftsman's dedication to his own perfect product.

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