Custom Shoes and Wide Styles Available for Hard-to-Fit Feet
From its humble appearance, few would guess that Gia Shoe Design of U.S.A. attracts an occasional movie star or rock ‘n’ roll singer.
The shop in a small strip shopping center in Garden Grove has none of the polished brass and studio lighting of finer shoe stores.
Instead, patrons are greeted by the smell of cement glue and the sound of workers hammering away on leather soles. Cardboard boxes, scraps of leather and unfinished shoes fill every corner of the store.
Yet people from as far away as Hollywood and San Diego make pilgrimages to the no-frills shoe store because here they can order custom shoes in any size or style.
“When people from Hollywood make a movie and need a 16th-Century-style shoe, I design it,” says John Tran, owner of Gia Shoe Design.
If someone wants a blue suede shoe in Size Triple E, Tran will have a pair ready in 24 hours.
Traditionally, finding shoes to fit feet that don’t conform to shoe manufacturers’ rigid sizing has been as easy as squeezing a square peg in a round hole. Customers with wide feet usually had a narrow selection of styles.
Today people with hard-to-fit feet are finding it easier than ever to be well-shod.
Salomon’s in Westminster specializes in wide shoes with a fashion flair.
“Up until a few years ago, women with wide feet had to wear old lady shoes. (Wide shoes) were very conservative-looking,” says Hugh Salomon of Pasadena, owner of the store.
Salomon used to operate a family shoe store which his own wife couldn’t shop at because the store didn’t stock wider shoes. When he opened his first shoe store in Pasadena six years ago, he had to persuade shoe manufacturers to make their current styles in wider sizes.
“Apparently no one went to the manufacturers and told them of the need,” he says. Now he has 25 to 30 manufacturers supplying him with wide shoes.
“I can offer high fashion shoes in a variety of colors,” he says. “They’re shoes for the ‘90s.”
Most stores carry only Size B or C widths. Salomon’s offers women’s shoes from Size 5 to 11 in wide and extra wide sizes, up to a Triple E.
“A lot of women are squeezing into Bs” who should be wearing wider shoes, Salomon says. “Some are very vain and wouldn’t wear a Triple E-width shoe. But these shoes are styled so they don’t look wide.”
His store carries a pair of metallic flats in pewter with tiny gold studs for $64.95, soft penny loafers in burgundy, tan and black for $55.95 and leather pumps with patent leather toes and brass buckles in purple, green, tan and black for $66.95. There are suede pumps in a rich shade of purple, black suede flats studded with colorful rhinestones and loafers in a multicolored faux snakeskin.
Thieves Market, with stores in El Toro, Fullerton, Costa Mesa and Los Alamitos, sells boots in sizes to accommodate urban cowboys with large feet.
At Thieves Market, one can find a lizard skin or alligator boot in sizes up to 15 or 16, in widths up to Triple E.
“We cater to the hard-to-fit,” says Richard Downes, vice president of Thieves Market. “About 75% of our sales are in the Size 9 to 11 range, but it’s the remaining 25% that we’re after. Nobody else is offering (these sizes).”
Those who can’t find a shoe in the style or size they want from ready-to-wear shoe stores can have them custom-made at Gia Shoe Design.
From a shelf above his desk, Tran pulls down what looks like an ordinary shoe box, lifts the lid and reveals its strange contents:
Inside there’s an impression of two feet in a Styrofoam mold, with one foot slightly larger and wider than the other. Tran will use the impression to design a pair of shoes according to the feet’s dimensions.
“This way the shoe fits exactly the way the customer wants it to,” he says.
Some shoes have cork inserts built inside or one heel that’s higher than the other for customers with foot problems.
“I also make shoes for very tiny feet. These are a Size 2,” Tran says, holding up a small pair of women’s pumps.
Customers can bring in a picture of a shoe from a magazine and Tran will draw up a pattern for it. Some bring a swatch of material and order shoes cut from red velvet or pink brocade.
“If they have a fancy dress, we can build a shoe to match,” says Tran, as he cuts out a shoe pattern from a piece of caramel-colored leather.
His ankle boots with their pointed toes and crocodile trim have proved popular with teen-agers and rock singers. One singer had Tran design a pair of lace-up black patent leather boots.
He charges about $100 to $300 for a pair of custom shoes, and about $300 to $400 for corrective shoes.
Tran keeps patterns and sketches of shoes he has designed in an overstuffed binder.
In a back room, workers sew together pieces of leather that have been cut from Tran’s pattern. The so-called leather upper is then stretched over a mold shaped like a shoe.
One worker glues the heel to the sole, then the sole is attached to the leather upper. Finally, the shoe is cleaned and buffed.
Gia Shoe Design makes 40 to 50 pairs of shoes a day--enough to supply Tran’s Garden Grove store and his five other franchise stores across the country.
Shoe manufacturers often hire the company to make prototypes of new styles for national shoe fairs.
Tran, 49, immigrated from Vietnam in 1975 and has been making shoes since 1956. After working for several American shoe companies, he opened Gia Shoe Design in 1983. A reminder of his native country stands in a corner of the shop--a small altar with an Oriental statue of the Lucky Man.
“It’s to invite in customers,” Tran explains. Especially those with wide feet.
