Tell us about your background, how did you get into footwear?
I am a podiatrist by profession and we are all trained to consider footwear as part of our clinical assessment. It was when I began work in a specialist diabetic unit in Sheffield in 1985 that I really became interested in footwear and this was because I was then dealing with the extreme effect that inadequately fitting shoes can have on foot health and the dramatic impact in terms of health costs and human misery that can result. At a later stage, I became involved in the development of forensic podiatry in the UK and much of my work in this area has been about footwear in the context of human identification.
Well, it does when it comes to shoes! At Footwear Today we find when we are sent shoes to road test that a size 10 from one manufacturer can be size nine or size 11 from another manufacturer. Half sizes aren’t available in continental shoes, which only exacerbates the problem. We pitched some questions to Laura West, Secretary of the Society of Shoe Fitters, to find out her views:
Q: On what is the shoe sizing system in this country based?
A: The English size scale was based on barleycorns – but even barleycorns can be different sizes! Both English and Continental sizing are predominantly used in the UK, and because of the number of imports having overtaken British manufacture, continental sizes are now the most commonly used size scale.
On first impressions, the term "Comfort Shoes" seems to be a contradiction in terms - who, after all, would contemplate wearing "Discomfort Shoes"?
Well, therein lies the paradox: women, and we have to be a smidgen unpolitically correct because it is mostly women, have been known to wear shoes that were, frankly, uncomfortable. To be more balanced here, I am old enough to remember the Mods (or was it the Rockers) whose "uniform" required men to wear "Winkle pickers".
Known for its body fixing healthy footwear, the Swiss brand is now targeting a style conscious customer.
MBT was the first brand within an ever growing category of physiological footwear. It is now being sold through more than 450 doors in the UK alone including retailers John Lewis, Charles Clinkard, Shoon and Harrods.
These days, comfort no longer has to be sacrificed on the altar of style. Advances in science and technology have led to a new generation of footwear brands that specifically market comfort, offering a wider fit which many people of all ages need, but, with younger, more active and fashionable styles.
British made Hotter Comfort Concept shoes are creating millions of happy feet.
"We are manufacturing 1.3 million pairs of footwear each year in one of the world's most technologically advanced shoe making factories here in the UK," said Group Operations Director John Andersen. "Thousands are casting aside shoes which create blisters and pinch toes to indulge their feet in a British manufacturing phenomenon which despite economic doom and gloom has managed to increase year on year sales."
There was a definite buzz around the Bollin School, Altrincham, as Twofeet, the UK's first ever in-school professional shoe fitting company launched its brand new service.
