Shoe industry headlines show a tough market: Payless Shoes closed 2,100 locations in 2019, the Shoe City chain filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2023, and Foot Locker plans to shutter 400 stores by 2026. Along with brick-and-mortar locations, the stores also compete with online sales from giant retailers like Zappos and Amazon. A 2023 Statista report estimated that 35.4 percent of footwear sales were online in 2022. That percentage is projected to go to about 41 percent in 2027.
In this sphere, shoe stores must find a way to stand out to survive. Perhaps that is why retail stores that mix shoe sales alongside a pedorthic practice are standing the test of time.
“The best independent shoe retailers in America are led by pedorthists,” says Robert S. Schwartz, CPed, executive director of the Pedorthic Footcare Association and owner of Eneslow Shoes and Orthotics, New York. “They are still in business because they understand the value of taking care of their customers and finding solutions for customers who don’t have perfect feet.”
Most customers aren’t seeking out pedorthists when they start shopping for shoes that fill their footcare needs, says Edie Almogabar, BSN, RN, CPed, president and owner of The Village Shoe Shop, Texas. But when they stop by a store owned by one, they see the difference in service and expertise.
“People don’t even know what a certified pedorthist is, and we need to educate the general population about what we do,” Almogabar says. “If people knew what we do and what we offer, it would be a game changer for pedorthists. There would be a store on every corner.”
While it can be difficult for pedorthic retail stores to compete on price, their owners say their expertise and focus on customer service and education have helped them weather the ups and downs of the retail world. We spoke to four owners of longstanding stores with a pedorthic focus about what it’s taken to keep the business going even when times were tough.
Eneslow Shoes and Orthotics
While shoe styles have changed in the 115 years Eneslow Shoes and Orthotics has been in business, the store’s philosophy of exceptional customer service has not. The business model has always been to attract customers, give them lots of time and attention, and sell them shoes they love so much that they keep coming back.
“Pedorthic retail is a hard model because you have to be both a retailer and a clinician,” Schwartz says. “It’s a whole other level of training.”
To stay afloat, the store has had to change with the times. For decades, the store depended on Manhattan employees who needed professional dress shoes that could be worn while walking city blocks. After COVID lockdowns, a large percentage of those workers kept working from home, and many of those who returned were no longer interested in wearing dress shoes.
“Much of the city is still virtually closed to this day in terms of going back to the office,” Schwartz says. “The recovery is extremely challenging.”
Now the store makes much of its sales to customers at two ends of the shoe spectrum: geriatric shoes and athletic shoes. Both sets of customers need a dependable shoe and are willing to pay a little extra to ensure they have what they need.
When customers shop at his store, they know it won’t be a rushed experience. The pedorthic assessment form examines the patient’s feet both inside and outside of shoes and takes several different measurements. All of this is to ensure the best possible fit, Schwartz says.
“Where we really add value to this space is through our pedorthic skills. These customers are coming to us because we understand their problems and know how to solve them.”
He says shoe designers are catching on to the techniques pedorthists have been using for years. He finds it amusing to see that many of the new athletic shoes coming out have the same profile as the rocker soles he’s been putting on shoes for decades. They have the same biomechanical features that help push forward or absorb shock.
“The athletic companies are marketing them as their super shoes,” Schwartz laughs.
Alongside pivoting his sales, Schwartz says he also tries to branch out as much as possible. He started the Eneslow Pedorthic Institute in 1995, which offers classes to healthcare professionals, shoe retailers, and the public. The classes help make additional revenue and make connections in the medical field, which can turn into referrals. His marketing strategy these days is to connect with as many healthcare professionals as possible. The company reaches out through LinkedIn, mailing out flyers, or phone calls to promote the store.
“As you keep expanding your database of potential referrals, you are branding yourself,” he says. “If you show them solutions, they will refer their patients to you or even become a customer themselves.”
Karavel Shoes
The formula for staying in business for 87 years has been pretty straightforward, says Rick Ravel, CPed, president of Karavel Shoes, Texas.
“We find the need, we fill the need, and we follow up,” he says. “That’s the name of the game.”
These days, the need the store has been filling is in the sale of running shoes. Ravel says they are sought out by runners tired of substandard service and inexperienced salespeople. Now, athletic shoes make up about 50 percent of the business. To reflect the shift, they rebranded their company and changed the logo. The store also sponsors runs in the area.
“If you go into a running store, most of the salespeople are student runners, and the store will only carry one width or certain sizes,” he says. “The runners aren’t used to the service we’re giving.”
Karavel Shoes specializes in having in-stock shoes in hard-to-find sizes. At one point, the store had more than 600 types of shoes. Lately, they’ve paired that number down and focus instead on having a variety of widths and lengths for the shoes they do carry. Customers can find what they need already in stock.
“They come back to us because of our service and because they can’t find what they need in the inventory online,” Ravel says.
One service that is no longer offered is insurance reimbursement. After years of frustration trying to break even, the store eventually went to a cash-only business. Ravel says employees had spent hours tracking down information and working to contact physicians to ensure they had the information needed for reimbursement. The payout for their efforts wasn’t enough, he says.
“Our employees were making money, but the company wasn’t,” he says.
Without reimbursement for customers, he knows that he might have to find solutions that don’t include custom orthotics. The store uses Aetrex pressure plate technology to scan customers’ feet with and without off-the-shelf (OTS) inserts. Customers can see where the pressure spots are on their feet and how the insoles can help relieve them.
“They can see for themselves what’s going on with their feet and how we can help,” he says.
And when customers leave the store, they can always expect a follow-up, whether by a thank you note, an email, or a text to ensure the shoe is working out.
“That’s part of every sale,” Ravel says. “The number one type of advertising is word of mouth. If you do a great job, a customer will tell five other people. If you do bad, they’ll tell 15.”
The Village Shoe Shop
Almogabar attributes the longevity of The Village Shoe Shop in Houston’s Rice Village shopping district to three tenets of her 77-year-old business: exceptional customer assistance, offering diverse services, and staying out of major debt.
She says her pedorthic certification goes hand in hand with customer service. She can leverage her expertise and love of teaching to help her clients find their ideal footwear solutions.
“The part of this business I love the best is the patient contact,” says Almogabar. “You have no idea how it feels when someone comes in a wheelchair and leaves walking. I have a client who can’t walk without her custom-molded shoes with modifications. My shoes have kept her mobile. That’s huge.”
After struggling for years to break even with insurance reimbursement, she no longer works with insurance companies and instead charges customers directly. Her clients, who have often struggled to find a solution for their footwear challenges, are willing to pay the full price.
“Many are willing to forgo insurance to accomplish their mobility goals,” she says. “It’s not inexpensive, but we try to make it reasonable for patients to obtain what they need on a private-pay basis.”
She also charges $75 for a personal pedorthic consultation, which can last 30-45 minutes.
“We don’t run a regular shoe store,” she says. “We run like a pedorthic facility.”
She says the charge helps keep her in business and keeps her focused on her patients. Since they already paid for the consultation, she’s not pressured to make a sale. If she doesn’t have what a patient needs in stock, she’ll send them somewhere else. She also recognizes that her customers can’t all afford $425 for custom orthotics and will often first fit them with OTS orthotics.
“We’re trying to meet their needs, and cost point is important,” she says. “If they cannot pay for a custom-molded orthotic, then I need to have something that might be the second-best choice at a better price point. Because I charge the consultation fee, I don’t have to try to encourage them to buy the most expensive item.”
These practices don’t always garner the biggest possible sale, but they do build customer loyalty and keep them coming back, she says.
While Almogabar is proud of her customer service, she says it has taken more than that to keep the store afloat, and through the lean times they barely held on. She’s thinking of COVID, the Great Recession in 2009, and Hurricane Harvey in 2017.
“In a small business, you have to be prepared for changes,” she says. “We have been through so many ups and downs. The only thing that saved us was that we weren’t in major debt.”
Low debt, she says, and offering a variety of services were the keys to remaining viable. In addition to the retail sales and pedorthic services, the shop also does shoe, luggage, and handbag repair on top of dyeing leather and fabric.
“Some of that seems so menial, but it helps supplement our business,” she says. “As a pedorthic facility, we can’t just do one thing. You have to be diverse in your products and the scope of what you offer to customers.”
Michael B Shoes
Michael B Shoes, Pennsylvania, has had to pivot repeatedly to stay in business for more than 45 years. Starting as a chain of family shoe stores, the business evolved into a single comfort shoe location that draws in customers willing to drive up to four hours, says owner Michael Boiano, CPed. The store leaned into providing even better customer service by requiring all employees to be professional shoe fitters, and it expanded its pedorthic center where customers can make an appointment for a personal consultation for footwear and orthotics.
“In our store, people want to try on a lot of shoes, they want to be waited on, and they want the full sit-and-fit experience,” he says. “And that’s what we give them. We are not looking to compete with big shoe chains or online retailers. We will pivot our focus to the people who want to come and sit and learn about what works best for them.”
While the pedorthic center isn’t the largest part of the business, it did help save the store during the pandemic, Boiano says. Since the store met a medical need for its customers, it was allowed to continue doing business when many other retail stores were shut down. The pandemic also helped because it got customers in the habit of making an appointment for a consultation. Boiano fits them in when the store is less busy, and he has more time. He doesn’t charge for the consultation.
“From our end, it can start the process off on the wrong foot,” he says. “If I need to do a quick evaluation to find out what will work for them, it’s a little hard for me to charge a fee.”
Even without the fee, he doesn’t believe in high-pressure sales. He will often suggest an OTS orthotic rather than a custom one to get started.
“If there’s a little pain in an area, I’ll try to manage that with an $80 over-the-counter product and see how it works,” he says. “We’ll sometimes start in that direction before going custom.”
He says they are a Medicare-approved facility but no longer accept insurance. If patients want to turn in the reimbursement paperwork, he will help them however he can. Even without insurance, his patients are still willing to pay for pedorthic services at his store. He says they know they are paying for the expertise and knowledge that the store’s reputation is built upon.
“They walk in the door and they don’t have to think. They don’t have to guess,” Boiano says. “Unlike online buying, they know exactly what they are getting when they buy from us because they have entrusted in us that we will be here for them all the time. Returns at our store are very rare because we have already gone through the proper fitting process and have identified the patient’s needs.”
Maria St. Louis-Sanchez can be contacted at [email protected].
This post was originally published on here
