David Fischer, C.Ped

David Fischer was born into his family’s retail shoe business, Fischer’s Shoe Store in St. Louis, MO. At age 11 he began fitting shoes…from baby’s first step to grandpa’s work boots. Groomed to take over the family business, he realized no number of employees could take the place of his dad, mom, aunt and uncle, so he chose to walk a different path.  At age 24, he opened his own high fashion shoe store, Tootsies. Shortly after immediate success, he sold Tootsie's and moved to the countryside.

While in meditation, David had a clear vision of healing crippled people with “magical shoes”. Without a shoemaking school in America, he journeyed inward and taught himself to custom make shoes for severely deformed feet. Years later, he realized the shoe was simply a shell for the total contact molded innersoles, so he ventured into orthotics and accommodative manufactured footwear. In 1978, David became a Board Certified Pedorthist and Fischer’s Therapeutic Footware, the first pedorthic facility in St Louis, was born. 

"No one wanted to wear the ugly orthopedic shoes that were being offered by the pedorthic profession", said Fischer.  So, he often traveled to the largest shoe show in the world, Dusseldorf, Germany, in search of good looking shoes that women and men would want to wear. His hunting was successful.  Many of the brands he brought into the US have become standards in the comfort shoe industry. 

Fischer’s Therapeutic Footware became the nation’s model of a retail pedorthic facility….a large selection of comfort shoes and sizes, private exam rooms, and a large fabrication lab. Years later, David moved to northern New Mexico and replicated his model in Taos, NM as HealthShoes of Taos. He sold HealthShoes in 2008.

David served on the Board for Certification in Pedorthics for seven years to up-level the standards of the profession. He has been a member of Pedorthic Footcare Association and the American Board for Certification in Prosthetics, Orthotics, and Pedorthics. He taught pedorthic and orthotic related courses at Washington University, St Louis University, Logan Chiropractic College and many Annual Pedorthic Symposiums. 

He now offers a mobile service where he goes to client’s homes.