The moment that sparked the trail that has lead to the existence of this business was the then on coming birth of our son. The year was 1993 and the internet was far from ready to do what we are doing now, without much thought or respect for the evolutionary path to now. Much like footwear. My partner was approaching maternity leave and forever feeling discomfort with her feet, having been on them for most of her working day. Sympathetically I would massage her feet and one day she merely remarked that the massages took away all the aggravations caused by her work shoes each day. Restricted from wearing open toed footwear, due to rightful Health & Safety regulations, further limited her potential choices for comfort, when we started to look for a suitable choice. Choice, we eventually found, was there but it was not so easy to find and information was scant and very fragmented. I buried my head into this supposedly new arena. From then on, piece, by piece, the knowledge began to fall into place. The more I learned, the more and I could see just how neglected a market it was, and more so, how the consumer/end user had often little say and just accepted that this was so, and so often with catastrophic effect. There was, and is plenty of choice but closer examination revealed that comfort and wellness are very often linked to the quality of footwear. Defining quality became the next quest. It is partly about materials used but the design of footwear is perhaps the overall overriding factor in the pursuit of comfort and the benefits of comfort. Design, in turn, includes the correct and suitable choice of materials and a willingness to stick to the principles of excellence, which is creating and maintaining standards and forever acknowledging and meeting the realities of final use. We humans are all very much the same but with infinite mini-variations that fly in the face of templated mass production. Our mini-variations fight against the business model of pure pursuit of profit, which is the extreme standardization and templating of us, regardless of our unique and often over looked variations. To aim for and pursue true customer satisfaction requires extra attention and detail. This, is thus in constant conflict with mass production and turnout of many products and services. Footwear sadly sits high on this list. Through my partner’s problems, I then began to look at my own. It is a myth to believe that it is only in the realm of Women’s footwear that problems exist. Most men may not wear high stiletto heels, but the traditions of dress code and perceptions of style have them equally guilty of abusing their feet in order to confirm to conventions. Either way, male or female, history is littered with damaged feet, the ill-fitting footwear that created the damage and the damaged human’s. It was shortly after this phase, that I came across a term that would advance my research and understanding rapidly. Pedic-Sadomasochism. Pedic-Sadomasochism broken down into its core explainer, is: the inflicting of pain and or damage to the feet with inappropriate footwear. This capacity for self disfigurement, is not limited to our feet but in the context of what we do, this is the primary focal point. All shoe wearing societies and civilizations have suffered near enough the same foot ailments. The human foot, in shoe wearing societies and civilizations is certainly the most abused part of the body. Bunions, corns, in-grown nails, calluses, fungal infections and plantar fasciitis and all the others have all generated industries and products that are ultimately, ‘the stable door being shut after the horse has bolted’. The ailments rise upwards, feet first. Hip joint issues, lower back issues and so on. Many other ailments that could be quoted can and have been openly contested. Just remember though, our feet are a mirror map of our bodies. The practice of treating fellow humans via their feet is known as reflexology. Like it or not, footwear’s element of sexual enhancement, has so many of us guilty of Pedic-Sadomasochism. There has and is a conflict with regards to the various styles of footwear from a pure point of being used as protector, to it being sexual appearance enhancer. This made me probe further the whole arena of footwear and stumbled on the issues of health and wellness in relation to footwear. Illogical as it may seem, health and wellness is often treated as much as a fad as winkle pickers, platforms, hypodermic high heels, ever were. What I hope that this pathway of enlightenment will do, is provide a service that highlights an alternative for those who wish for comfortable, stylish, footwear that compromises not their feet and wider existence. The business’ history has this standard and objective to maintain. |
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