If there’s a joke or a pun about feet, Jon Harrison, 76, has heard them all.
And after seeing thousands upon thousands of aching feet, Harrison said he’s not done lending a helping hand.
“I really enjoy what I do because I can make a difference where a lot of people can’t,” he said.
“Everything I’ve done will help them do things they haven’t been able to do.”
Since 1984, Harrison has owned and operated at least one independent shoe store following 11 years at Nordstrom in Seattle. By 2009, Harrison estimates he made at least 16,000 pairs of handmade foot orthoses, also called orthotics, but he stopped counting.
This weekend, his business, Harrison’s Comfort Footwear, 609 W. Washington St., celebrates 18 years in Sequim with promotions running May 31, and June 1-2.
Donna, Jon’s wife of 13 years, said the anniversary sale started as Ladies’ Day, a promotion she ran in conjunction with nearby businesses with much success. It switched to an anniversary sale last year as a way to help clear inventory because the couple sold their Diamond Point house, which doubled as a warehouse for about 800 pairs of shoes.
A pair of partnerships
Whether in Seattle or Sequim, Harrison’s shoes and orthotics have gone on everyone from construction workers to politicians to local golf pros to professional basketball players.
Referrals began coming in nearly a year into opening his Seattle shop, he said, following a partnership with Dr. Martin Mankey.
Harrison said Mankey consulted with him about helping people with soft tissue issues.
“We needed something that’s an oxymoron — something rigid but soft,” Harrison said.
“Once he knew it worked, we started getting referrals.”
A majority of orthotics are made in a laboratory, and are stiff and don’t bend, he said.
“You need some flex as you go in your stride,” he said.
Following referrals with Mankey, Harrison became part-time staff at various medical facilities including the University of Washington and Harborview Medical Center training under foot and ankle doctors, such as Dr. Sig Hansen.
Super strides
In 1987, staff with the Seattle SuperSonics approached Harrison for help with their 7-foot center with plantar fasciitis, which led Harrison to make orthotics for players through 2003, including Ray Allen, Vin Baker, Jim McIlvaine, Steve Scheffler and many more.
One of his designs included a steel bar rocker to help players shorten their stride and make them run faster and helps take pressure off their lower back, knees and ankles.
The largest pair of shoes he ever worked on was for Jerome James, size 21, which Harrison keeps one of the shoes on display in his store.
Harrison, nicknamed “MacGyver” by Seattle doctors for his work with helping feet, continues to receive referrals and requests from across the globe, including England and South Korea.
Sequim beginning
Harrison’s Comfort Shoes opened in Sequim in 2001 with Harrison splitting his time between Sequim and Seattle.
“As I age, I still wanted to do what I do, but I knew I didn’t want to do 900 (orthotics) a year,” he said.
In 2003, he sold his Seattle store to his friend Andy Duval but soon thereafter opened another shop in Poulsbo.
His son, Chris, earlier asked him about working for him, but Harrison said he wanted him to work for five years at Nordstrom and then he’ll help him find a store of his own.
“That was always Poulsbo in his mind,” Harrison said.
So, in 2007, Chris Harrison took on independent ownership of Harrison’s Comfort Footwear in Poulsbo.
Donna said her husband is proud that customers aren’t asking for Chris’ dad but rather for him.
“That means I’ve done something right,” Harrison said.
He feels the same about his employees in Sequim, including general manager Randy Stone, Darcy Gort, and Tracy Schuh, whom he’s training to make orthotics.
Harrison works in Sequim about seven months and travels to Palm Desert, Calif., the rest of the year to help with Donna’s rheumatoid arthritis.
Donna said they are both in good health and her husband has no fingerprints for his years of hard work.
In 1970, Harrison had a hip replaced and 48 years later, Donna says his doctor attributes his good health and stability to his work in the shoe industry and living by his standards of shoes with good support.
“I’m only going to stop (working) when my health tells me to,” he said.
The market
The shoe industry has changed a lot since the 1970s and 1980s, Harrison finds.
“If you say this is the way we’ve always done it, then you’ll be out of business by your first lease,” he said.
He said society has changed more to what he calls “Euro-comfort” with different brands, such as Keen.
Branding his business for comfort and fashion took him some time, saying, “there is a market and merchandising for comfort and attractive, but it took me eight or nine years to get it right.”
“Shoe brands like Brooks, New Balance Josef Seibel allow you to be in them seven or eight hours,” he said. “That wasn’t available 24 years ago. You took two Advil half-an-hour before you danced.”
While some of the shoes may seem costly, Harrison said the average pair lasts about three years depending on what you do in them.
In Sequim, he says plantar fasciitis is the common cold of the foot and the No. 1 thing he works with followed by alignment issues.
Harrison’s Comfort Footwear, 609 W. Washington St., opens 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, and 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday. Contact the store at 360-582-1247.
Reach Matthew Nash at mnash@sequimgazette.com.
Many customers keep their foot molds on hand for Jon Harrison so he can make new orthotics and send them worldwide, including as far away as England and South Korea. Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash
All of the molds Jon Harrison makes are in the back of his shop, Harrison’s Comfort Footwear, for orthotics. Harrison estimates he’s made at least 16,000 pairs of orthotics since he started making them in the 1980s.
Harrison’s Comfort Footwear, 609 W. Washington St., celebrates 18 years in operation 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Thursday and Friday, May 31, and June 1, and 9:30 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday, June 2. Sequim Gazette photo by Matthew Nash
