By Rebecca St. Andrie with Bill Boettge

The local shoe store never walked away from meeting the needs of the customer who had foot problems, but during the past generation, its emphasis was certainly more on fashion. However, in the past few years, many of today’s shoe stores have come back to meeting the special footwear needs of the American consumer. Consequently, pedorthists are finding more opportunities there than ever before.

We went to Bill Boettge, past president of National Shoe Retailers Association (NSRA) and past executive director of the Pedorthic Footwear Association (PFA) for close to 20 years, to give us a perspective on today’s shoe stores and their renewed interest in meeting the needs of the problem foot.

The history
From the 1950s to the 1970s, if you needed special footwear to address a foot problem, you could go to regular retail shoe stores for “orthopedic” footwear. At these stores, pioneers in pedorthics were helping people with foot problems.

In the 70s and early 80s, these pioneers became certified pedorthists. Their stores evolved into special pedorthic facilities. The other shoe stores focused on fashion.

In fact, during this time, NSRA’s most important committee was the women’s fashion committee. Hours of discussion were spent on the percentage of business gotten from various heel heights, and the word “comfort” was not a part of members’ vocabulary.

But in the early ‘90s, the country moved into a more casual era, with footwear following the trend. Along with the arrival of the casual lifestyle came the introduction of the Eurocomfort line. These shoes provided an alternative to dressy, structured shoes, and the fashion look was right for the era.

Many of the good independent shoe retailers saw an opportunity, and became the leaders in the Eurocomfort segment. This differentiated their stores from the chains and department stores, who continued to emphasize dressy shoes.

Soon many more of the independent shoe stores, seeing the growth of this segment, were joining the transition and transforming their stores into Eurocomfort stores. Consequently, because of the design and structure of these new styles, independent shoe stores were now back to meeting the needs of customers who had specific foot problems (or who were just interested in health and wellness).

By 1994, the cover story in the footwear industry’s trade magazine Footwear News began “Considering that in today’s footwear industry comfort is king…” What an about-face from just a few years before!

As these shoe stores increased their “comfort” business, they looked for additional ways to meet customers’ needs. One of the first was the addition of off-the-shelf footbeds. In the quest to gain additional comfort, retailers added footbeds that had more cushioning, more support, or a higher arch. This is still a big part of independent shoe stores’ business. Many retailers state that their footbed sales pay their rent.

With this increase in sales to consumers who wanted to keep their feet healthy came the need for salespeople who had more knowledge about fit and footwear. Boettge remembers getting calls from retailers who a few years ago couldn’t pronounce “pedorthics,” now asking, “How do I hire a C.Ped.?”

Today’s opportunities
The trend hasn’t stopped. Today, those experiencing foot problems often head for a regular retail shoe store. And their numbers are expected to grow.

There are 78 million people over 50 who have low-level foot problems or who are interested in keeping their feet healthy. This group, combined with all other age groups with the same needs, offers a great opportunity to both shoe stores and certified pedorthists.

Shoe stores have an opportunity to keep and increase this customer base. Currently, Eurocomfort customers are looking for something fresh. They don’t want to sacrifice comfort, but do want new colors, materials and styling. Shoe store owners love this because it plays to their forte—fashion.

Certified pedorthists have an opportunity because regular retail shoe stores, with their large inventories of comfort footwear, want to meet the needs of these consumers. Many of them are expanding their inventory in comfort footwear, hiring certified pedorthists and training their entire staff in basic and advanced shoe fitting.

Two types of certified pedorthists?
Shoe store owners who have added certified pedorthists to their staff usually look for pedorthists who are more interested in mild to moderate cases, or in helping those with healthy feet keep their feet healthy.

These owners are not comfortable dealing with advanced diabetic problems, severe arthritic deformities or other serious foot problems. That is not their customer profile. Nor do they want to advance their inventory or staffing to that level. In addition, paperwork and billing for Medicare or other insurance companies gets more complicated by the month. They are more than happy to refer such a patient to a pedorthic or O&P facility that is equipped and has trained staff to handle these cases. For pedorthists, establishing a referral relationship with these stores could be profitable.

In Boettge’s opinion, there is also tremendous opportunity for the field of pedorthics to develop specialists. Instead of a general, one-education-fits-all program, he suggests creating different types of certified pedorthist. One type could understand minor foot problems and the practice of wellness, while the other could manage the foot in the advanced stages of diabetes and other serious foot problems.

Looking to the future
Today, department stores and even discount chains are in the comfort shoe game. They are offering the same brands as many of the independent comfort shoe stores. To keep their differentiation, independent stores are looking at better customer service, which means having an educated, trained staff with knowledge of pedorthics.

Consequently, Boettge is optimistic about the opportunities for shoe stores and for pedorthists, particularly those located in independent shoe stores.

“Tomorrow’s customers are made up of a large segment [of people] who are getting older and an upcoming segment who are very interested in wellness,” he says. “A great majority of both of these groups want comfort, but want it with fashion and ‘wow’ customer service delivered by knowledgeable, trained salespeople.”

That makes the independent retail shoe store a focus of interest for pedorthists. “Tomorrow’s shoe store won’t be exactly like yesterday’s or today’s,” says Boettge, “but [it] won’t be walking away from customers with special needs.”

Rebecca St. Andrie is managing editor of the O&P Almanac. Bill Boettge is the past president of the National Shoe Retailers Association and past executive director of the Pedorthic Footwear Association.