Best foot forward
Podiatric surgeon, an OU graduate, crafts luxury shoes.
As a podiatric surgeon, Marion Parke knows about feet.
As a woman, she knows how she wants her feet to feel in shoes.
So, who better to create a more wearable, stylish shoe than a podiatrist turned shoe designer?
Parke, a University of Oklahoma graduate, launched her first namesake collection in spring 2016. Since then, her luxury shoes have caught the attention of women across the country, including countless celebrities, who have a little more spring in their step thanks to Parke’s sculpted and contoured insole.
She said it’s that insole that sets her shoes apart from others. A traditional insole generally is a flat piece of cardboard. Hers follows the natural contour and curvature of the bottom of the foot. Key elements are arch support, cupping in the heel and added material along the outside for a more stable position of the foot.
While others may describe her shoes as comfortable, that’s not a word Parke uses. She thinks the expectations are different. Her shoes are not made for people with foot problems or bunions. Her shoes aren’t extra wide or extra deep. They’re for the woman with normal feet who says she still can’t wear a high heel for more than 30 minutes.
“That’s where the white space is in the market,” she said, adding her shoes are for the woman who likes to shop designer and loves fashion.
“I think the shoes speak for themselves,” Parke said.
They’re a fashion shoe first and foremost. “My shoes are not meant to feel like sneakers.”
Shoes can be fashion, an art form and creative expression, and not all designers approach their work in the same way or with the same results.
Parke said she encourages women to take the shoe challenge. “Try another brand on one foot and a Marion Parke shoe on the other, and feel the wearability.”
What needs to change is the perception and understanding of what makes a shoe a good shoe, she said. One of those myths is the idea that more cushioning is the answer. She said clients tell her they need more cushioning on the ball of their foot, but often more cushion leads to more fatigue and soreness over time.
People who have problem feet often are lacking the fat pad on the bottom of the foot, she said. Those with normal feet really need more support and more rigidity in their footwear.
Parke isn’t the first podiatrist to turn her attention to shoes. Other brands have reached out for expert advice, but none have approached construction like she has. It’s the combination of what she brings that makes the difference.
There’s a taste level that hasn’t been reached until now, she said.
“I think I have a unique skill set. I have an elevated taste level and aesthetic,” and the technology blends seamlessly with the rest of the shoe. It doesn’t take away from the Italian craftsmanship.
“The way women shop for shoes is with their heart not their head,” she said. When shopping, it’s not unusual for women to make a shoe purchase even against their better judgment.
“We lead with the beauty of the shoe, and the wearability factor is secondary because that’s the way we shop for shoes,” Parke said. “We shop with our hearts, and so that’s the way this collection is designed.”
She said every welltrained podiatrist has an arsenal of ideas of what can make a shoe fit better, a shoe more aligned with the biomechanics of our anatomy, “but I think it’s the taste level, that artfulness, that tastefulness that’s been a huge part of the brand today.”
FASHION, FUNCTION
Almost immediately after the collection launched, Parke started getting interest from magazines, retailers and the fashion industry. She was a finalist for the Accessory Council’s Emerging Designer Award in 2015 and received Fashion Group International’s Rising Star Award in Accessories for 2017.
Parke grew up in Oklahoma City, attended Casady School, played hockey and soccer, graduated from OU with a degree in zoology and was on track for premed. While working at OU Health Sciences Center, she discovered the advantages of podiatry and liked the different sub specialties in medicine.
She went to Chicago’s Dr. William M. Scholl College of Podiatric Medicine and became a foot and ankle surgeon. She now lives in Minneapolis.
It was during her second year of school in a podiatry biomechanics class that she started thinking about how she could marry fashion with function. She said she was learning how to manage patients with high arches by using orthotics and wondered why that couldn’t be applied to a woman’s dress shoe.
“That’s effectively what I’ve done,” she said.
Parke admitted she’s
always loved fashion so it’s fitting that she be the one to successfully create a more wearable shoe with a heavy dose of style.
She has two utility patents pending on the insole she’s developed. The idea was to take the concept and mold it in a very discreet and elevated luxury way.
“I was on maternity leave with my first son when I took this deep dive into research about how to start,” Parke said.
She made cold calls to factories and came across the Italian Trade Commission in New York that helps people who want to do any kind of business in Italy. She simply asked, “I want to start a shoe company. Who do I talk to?”
It took years and lots of persistence. In footwear there are so many balls in the air, she said. Every part of the shoe is made in a different factory. If one piece of the shoe is delayed, lost or damaged, it can affect the entire production.
“I learned how to push forward and just keep going,” she said.
Initially she said she didn’t even know she needed help or needed a production team in Italy for the technical side, for sourcing leathers, pattern making and consulting.
But she got set up legally and met the right people to build the infrastructure of the company.
Hers is the same factory that produces luxury footwear for Jimmy Choo, Prada and Miu Miu. The difference between their shoes and hers is the fit and mold with the insole she developed. It’s the same craftsmen and resources from the same tanneries as the luxury brands. The craftsmanship is second to none, she said, but her brand includes design and structure intelligence behind the construction.
Parke’s evolution from podiatry to shoe designer took time. She graduated from OU in 2004, and it was in 2006 that the idea for a better wearing shoe hit her. It was nearly 10 years later that the first shoe shipped.
Balliets in Oklahoma City was one of the first stores to buy the collection. Parke will make a personal appearance there from 4 to 6 p.m. April 11 to meet with customers and explain what makes her shoes more wearable.
Even early on when she first had the idea she knew the importance of credibility, of being able to say, “I know how biomechanics work and I love fashion, so here it is.”
As a surgeon, she performed more than 1,000 surgeries in three years and oversaw foot and ankle trauma. Though she knew her feet often hurt during residency, it wasn’t until she was in practice and treating female patients that the idea to make shoes started to take hold again. Her patients often asked about their shoe options and during appointments she would teach them what to look for in shoes and how to test for support and stability.
No surprise, her patients often said maybe she should make shoes.
Now she is.