Russian Pointe® Retailer: The Sock Basket

When Kay Betsch was a little girl, she dreamed about being a dancer, but she came from a large family that didn’t have the money to spend on dance lessons.

Years later, however, Betsch is getting to live out her childhood dream as the owner of The Sock Basket, a dancewear retail store with locations in Greenville, SC; Spartanburg, SC; and Asheville, NC.

“I love dance and I can appreciate what hard work it is,” Betsch says.

Betsch began working at the Greenville store when her daughter was studying dance, and she bought the business in 2005. She expanded to Spartanburg in 2007 and Asheville in May.

A loyal Russian Pointe® customer, Betsch says she appreciates Russian Pointe®’s endless varieties of styles that fit every dancer. “You can get the Saphir for the really tapered foot, and the Muse for the wider foot,” she says.

Betsch says customers love that Russian Pointe® shoes can be specially ordered with different vamps and shanks to tailor the shoe to each person. “The customer… likes to feel special like that,” she says.

Two years ago, Betsch hosted a Russian Pointe® Trunk Shoe at her Greenville store, where her staff received extensive training on how to properly fit a pointe shoe. “I think taking that extra step [of hosting a trunk show]… validates that we’re serious about it,” Betsch says.

That commitment to quality attracts many serious dancers to all three Sock Basket locations, including dancers from Ballet Spartanburg, which has more than 400 students and a pre-professional company, as well as dancers from all over the western Carolinas and northern Georgia.

“Between Greenville and Atlanta, there’s not another store that does what we do,” Betsch says.

Betsch says she personally gets satisfaction out of helping children experience dance. “You go from the babies coming in and twirling in their little skirts to the ones in the Nutcracker,” she says. “I love seeing the girls grow up. I love seeing them improving.”