STRAP


Cheryl Taylor, Editor, talks to independent footwear retailer Owen Oo of Footkaki, Singapore. Q&A:


Name: Owen Oo Shop(s): Footkaki


Brands: Grünland, Spenco, Vionic, Revere, Ziera, Ccilu, Archline, Aetrex, Tacco, Sole, Telic


Hometown: Batu Gajah, Malaysia. Now a naturalised Singaporean


Family: Wife, daughter, son (Clarence), and Creepy (the family dog)


How did you get into footwear? Tell us about your background and your current business? I used to sell shoes at the wet market outside my village as a child for some pocket money in the 60s. It was right outside Batu Gajah, a small mining town in North Malaysia (we lived in a squatter village). I left for Singapore right after high school as there were no opportunities back home, and eventually settled in Singapore after meeting my wife.


30 • FOOTWEAR TODAY • FEBRUARY 2020 Since then, I didn’t touch footwear again until much later in life. It was


only when my brother in Malaysia asked me to help him kickstart the Foot Solutions franchise in Kuala Lumpur that I entered the orthopedic footwear industry. That was in the early 2000s. I was sent to train as a Pedorthist in Atlanta, USA, and discovered that I was the only one from Singapore! I wanted to be a doctor as a child but didn’t get a chance, as we were quite poor. So, becoming a Pedorthist was a second chance at my childhood dream. After setting up a successful chain of Foot Solutions shops in Kuala


Lumpur, I returned to Singapore because I missed my family. Here, I was the resident Pedorthist and retail manager for one of Singapore’s up market orthopedic shoe stores. There, I trained staff in shoe fitting, and took care of customers with more complicated foot problems. However, I noticed that the shoes we sold were too expensive for many people who needed them. These were ordinary folks who came from the public health system. They don’t have much money. After a few years, the urge to run a business according to my own values returned. So, I resigned, and roped in my son (who left his job) to help me start Footkaki with whatever savings I had. The name ‘Footkaki’ is a play on words from different languages in


Singapore. In Malay, kaki means ‘foot’. While in Hokkien and Singlish (our local dialects), it means ‘friend’. Footkaki can mean ‘foot-foot’ or ‘foot- friend’. I just want Footkaki to be a place where people from all walks of life can feel comfortable and afford comfortable footwear.


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