Eneslow Shoes & Orthotics

Robert Schwartz

Eneslow has been family-owned and operated since 1909. Tell us about the 100-plus-year-old business.

Yes, Eneslow, the shoe store, is now celebrating 100 years. We have skilled people. Technicians who make shoes and orthotics and modify and customize shoes. And pedorthists who work with each customer, client, patient to create the footwear prescription so they walk out with the right shoes, using almost all ready-made shoes on hand, and all the skills to do it. We make custom shoes both down in our store in Manhattan and in our factory in Portugal. That’s the 100-year-old company.

What is a pedorthist?

Orthopedics is the treatment of the foot and leg, providing footwear, orthotics and compression therapies. Our staff at Eneslow are pedorthists, some are credentialed by The American Board for Certification in Orthotics, Prosthetics & Pedorthics (ABC), including myself and my management team.

We need young people desperately who want to be entrepreneurial and professional. To help people at a very high level, use shoes, orthotics, and comparable designs. If you’re good at engineering and have a big heart, you’ll be a great pedorthist. If you like to sell, you’ll do well.

Who is your average customer?

We’re dealing with a professional class New Yorker as our primary customer. You need to get your shoes repaired? You want them perfectly balanced? We do all that work. You bring your own shoes; we’ll help make them more comfortable.

We get every age now because people are coming back out shopping again, because feet are hurting, and solutions aren’t automatic. We know what’s right for you. We’ll guide you and teach you and show you what’s right for you.

What are some of the common difficulties people have with their feet or lower limbs that you can help with?

New York is a walking city. Plantar fasciitis and heel and arch pain are the biggest issues we see.

What can someone expect when walking in off the street for the first time?

If you don’t know our medical skills and you don’t have an appointment for an assessment, you’re just walking into a nice shoe store with a big selection of shoes – mostly comfort, a lot of sneakers, not too much dress. You’ll see people sitting in fitting stools; you haven’t seen that in a long time. You’ll see measuring devices and people getting their feet measured.

We’re going to find out what’s going on with them and why they’ve come in. We’re going to check the fit of the shoes they’re wearing – see if they’re the right shape, see whether their toes are too far forward. We take them off and look at the insole and outsole. The insole is a great storyteller. It says exactly where your pressure point is. It’s all a process of leading to the right footwear. Right size, right fit, right style, right color, right season, right biomechanical needs.

We take care of everybody. We love our pediatric business. Bring us your children and your elderly and your athletes, and we will change their lives. That’s the gift of Eneslow.

Why is it important to provide shoe repair as a service? Instead of just selling a new pair of shoes?

We are about people, not products. We’re about foot balance, alignment, posture and gait. We’re about saving the planet. We’d rather have you continue to wear things that don’t need to go into the trash if our modifications can make them perfect. Hopefully, you’ll buy a new, fresh pair too.

We have a homeless box for people to bring us wearable shoes, and we forward them on to charities all over the world. Each of us, individually and collectively as shoe retailers, can help those in greater need.

What is your method of finding the right shoes for your customers?

The first thing is matching foot shape and size. We always want to match the shape of the foot
the shoe. Almost all feet elongate a quarter of an inch when you step. So you want to make sure the shoe is not to the point where the toe comes to the end because then it can’t do its normal shock absorption.

After we determine shape and size, you add support. Do you want to have that foot control because it’s rolling too much, or do you want to absorb shock because it doesn’t move so great?

Everything we do at Eneslow in footwear selection is to get them the very best. It could be Hoka, it could be an Eneslow custom shoe, it could be some other European shoe, it could be something else. We’re going to give you good options. Especially for Manhattan, a major walking city. Eneslow should never die because Manhattanites desperately need us.

What recommendations do you have for people who experience pain or discomfort in their feet?

A doctor will send someone in for a pair of shoes with no more guidance. They come in really wanting to understand their problem and how to navigate it. We teach them how to stretch. How to look for footwear. Our goal is for them to go out pain-free.

I was a gifted athlete who suffered because I was always injured. Eneslow was for my own needs. It was a place where I learned how to navigate my own struggles up and down my body. A lot of pedorthists are super active, get into trouble, want to understand it, realize they can, and want to help everybody else once they figure out their own issues.

Heel cord stretches are very important. Achilles and calf stretching is critical. Keep your feet in the barefoot freedom point of view, but don’t go flat-footed on yourself because you’re just getting weaker, and the body is just pulling down. And believe it or not, the posterior muscles and the core muscles are really weakened that way.

What new technologies are you working with at Eneslow?

There is technology that helps us find what we call footwear forensics. Customers can walk over it, and it does the foot diagnosis. We can put our inventory into the software, and it’ll even recommend footwear based on the specs, the size, and foot shape, which is the Eneslow model. Technology is coming very, very close to what we do.

May 2026