First, if your feet aren't too big or too wide, and knowing nothing else, I suppose you'd be best off with Gaynor Mindens: www.dancer.com.  They seem to have thought through pointe shoes very well.

Otherwise, Sansha makes more pointe shoes that men might wear than any other maker.  They can probably fit your feet, up to men's street shoe size of 11 or 12; they even can come in black canvas, if you don't like pink satin.

Be warned: "fit" and "pointe shoe" don't really go together in one sentence.  Women have zillions of brands to choose between, with zillions of options, and they can dick around and find the pointe shoe that fits them best.  Options for men are more limited.

If Sansha is the only brand you can wear, you're stuck with it, even if it's not quite right for your feet.  And if that's the case, your feet will REALLY hurt.  Pay close attention to www.dancer.com, for advice on how you might make the shoes fit.  It will take a lot of dickering around and many sore toes.

Also, do your best to understand the physics of dancing on pointe: on part of the toes do you stand (the pads, not the tip)?  How does the box help support the feet?  How and where does the shoe need to bend?  How well-suited are your feet to pointe work (long second toes are bad)?

Beware of common beginner mistakes, and catch them before you really mess up your feet.  Pressure on your big tonail can hurt, turn in purple, and ultimately make it fall off.  That's happened to many women before they knew any better, so keep it short enough.  People are told to cut their toenails straight across, or else risk ingrown tonails (ouch!).  You can develop tendonitis in your achillees tendon.  Pointe injuries can and do sideline dancers for months; your feeet were not designed to dance on pointe.

Finally, you should consider carefully why you are endeavoring to practice pointework, how much pain you might have to endure, what long-term risks you face, and whether it is worth it for you.  Pointe work can help increase understanding of ballet.  It can also help stretch and strengthen in certain ways, although most of these benefits can probably be gained without pointe shoes, given carefully thought up exercises.  Feet can be stretched very well with pointe shoes, but never actually standing on pointe.  Pointe class can probably be beneficial from the beginning; actually dancing well on pointe is nearly impossible.

Remember that as a man, this is not a feat you ever have to master in order to get a professional job.  In the process of trying, you might take valuable attention away from some other aspect of ballet, or worse yet, you could endure injuries that needlessly put you on the sidelines.

Best of luck,-- Bob

>where can i find pointe shoes that will fit me? thanks!