Step into the Walk Shop and enter a world where the shoes are comfortable, varied, and stylish, and the staff attentive, knowledgeable, and friendly. Here there’s no hunting for your size among towering racks and stacks of boxes with nary a salesperson to be found. Instead, shoppers are greeted by a staffer who, as a matter of course, takes foot measurements, makes suggestions about appropriate styles, and offers information about a particular shoe’s comfort features while actually helping you try it on. A “comfort shoe” usually means one with rubber soles, cushioned heels, leather uppers, and biomechanically correct foot beds. Since the Walk Shop opened in 1978, it has influenced manufacturers to make professional shoes with these characteristics, and has introduced European comfort shoe lines to the Bay Area. Owners Maury Kershaw and his son Julian run their business in the tradition of Benjamin Kershaw, Maury’s father and the founder of the Natural Bridge Shoe Shop in Jamaica, Long Island, circa 1930: Don’t sell shoes, sell foot comfort. This philosophy means there’s no hard sell at the Walk Shop, simply a selection of shoes that make feet happy.
Readers’ Pick:
La Foot
2917 College Ave., Berkeley, 510-644-3668
