Hirsh's Shoes stands apart with its focus on aching feet

Aching feet rarely wait, becoming intolerable quickly, and so Hirsh's Shoes has done a brisk business, even during the recession.

Founded in 1954 as a children's shoe store, Hirsh's now specializes in shoes for sore feet and shoes for dancing.

It has two certified pedorthists on staff to do expert fittings and to modify shoes. Pedorthists, like pharmacists, fill a prescription from a doctor.

One staffer, Beverly Valdez, has specialized in tightly fitting dance shoes for more than seven years.

Even though most customers who walk through Hirsh's doors at 2934 E. Broadway - gingerly, in many cases - come looking for relief, entrance does not necessarily translate into a guaranteed sale.

Some people's feet don't hurt enough, said pedorthist Richard Moran, who has been making custom orthotics for 15 years.

Vanity is perhaps a greater damper on sales than a global recession. Fashionable and strappy shoes are most often made with aesthetics, rather than anatomy, in mind.

That is something that hasn't changed over time, even as shoe materials have improved, said Sid Hirsh, one of the store's original partners.

But fashion isn't what Hirsh's is about - comfort is. Not that style is forgotten. An array of styles and colors lines the walls.

Still, customers buck compromise. "I couldn't wear that" is something Moran has heard many times, even from a customer with tears in her eyes.

"Most people buy shoes for their pocketbooks and their eyes," Hirsh said. "When something hurts, that's what brings them."

That's the case with Edna Lindquist. She came to the store Wednesday because she recently had several foot surgeries.

The strappy black pair she loved most weren't a good fit, but she did find some slip-ons she liked, even if the transition to shoes more about fit than flair was uncomfortable.

"That's what happens when you get older," she said as she walked to the register.

Hirsh's business model is founded upon customer service, high-quality shoes and professional fitting, and it appears to be working.

Last year's sales were back at pre-recession levels, and this year's sales are looking even better, Hirsh said.

That's with a quarter of sales made up of Finn Comfort shoes, which start at about $225. Some shoes sell for as much as $400, and custom orthotics cost about $275.

Over the past few years, Hirsh says, his major competitors have gone out of business, and his business has consolidated since the 1990s from five stores down to one.

His primary competition now is the Internet, where customers don't need to pay the 9-percent sales tax required for in-store purchases.

Hirsh began charging a $10 fee for customers wanting a professional fit on dance shoes, which can take more than an hour.

"I just had to to pay for my workers' time," he said, as many people would leave the store after the fitting and buy the same shoes online.

Hirsh is hoping for legislation that puts online retailers on equal footing with bricks-and-mortar stores.

In the meantime, though, he's not complaining. His business is growing - now at five full-time and two part-time employees - and at 81, he's doing what he loves.

He's no longer hiking - an earlier passion - but he attends the opera in Santa Fe and regularly gives talks titled "All You Want to Know about Shoes."