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Name: Fash-N-Fit RX Shoes

Type of business: Retail family orthopedic shoes

Address: 1 Ruth St., East Brunswick

Telephone: (732) 220-1800

Web site: fashnfitshoes.com

Number of employees: 3

Founded: 1985

Hours: Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday: 10 a.m.-6 p.m.; Thursday: 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Friday, Saturday: 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; closed Sunday and Monday.

Top officers: Howard Malkin, president; Stella Malkin, CEO; and Lance Malkin, certified pedorthist

How would you describe your business?

"We have orthopedic shoes of many different styles, provide expert shoe fitting, and we do shoe modification and custom orthotics on premises," said Lance Malkin, certified pedorthist who has had extensive training with helping those with diabetic foot problems of neuropathy and ulceration and rheumatoid arthritic foot problems. "Our expertise is in shoe-fitting to provide supportive footwear to treat plantar fasciitis, heel spurs, neuromas, tendonitis, knee pain, leg length difference, post polio syndrome, clubfoot, partial amputation, and all athletic injuries.

"We also custom-make shoes as necessary. We also custom-mold orthotics to fit the individual."

What makes your business special?

"My experience. I specialize in wound care and have worked with lepers in Carville, Louisiana -- the only Hanson's disease center in the continental U.S. (The other center is in Hawaii).

"What makes us truly special is I don't sell any pre-fabricated, factory-made orthotics. We don't have any generic or factory blank, slightly customized orthotics because many orthotics are made with the wrong materials and for the wrong reasons. Our custom orthotics are made right here. We mold the cast from the actual person. We custom mold them for each individual. I believe I'm the only one still making the orthotics myself."

What goals do you have for the business?

"My main goal is to create the awareness that there shouldn't be any such thing as a person with neuropathy or rheumatoid arthritis who doesn't wear orthopedic shoes. That's my goal for this business -- to make doctors aware that every single patient who has diabetic neuropathy or rheumatoid arthritis absolutely needs orthopedic shoes. How can you have a rheumatoid arthritis patient hobbling around in pain and not send them for orthopedic shoes, which will relieve much of their pain?"

How has your business changed?

"It started as a comfort-casual dressy shoe store in Monroe Township in the Concordia Shopping Center with my parents. I was the one who had the store focus on prescriptions and making orthotics about 19 years ago. We still carry shoes, like sandals from Germany and Holland -- shoes not found in the mall that a person would want to wear -- but our focus is carrying a strong shoe to properly fit the foot with an orthotic device designed for the individual."

What was your most important deal?

"What brought us to another level was my way of designing orthotics. I had been designing for years. I found ways for people who wore braces to wear shoes without using braces. I found that Richie Braces that go around the ankle, and are worn within the shoe, requiring a larger shoe could be replaced with a correct shoe fit and have the shoe fortified on the outside so the brace could be removed but its function would remain. When you brace a foot, the foot will atrophy. Getting people out of braces by various orthotic modifications -- these are the things that brought us to another level."

What changes do you expect in your business in the next 10 years?

"I would like to start holding seminars to spread awareness about orthotics. I'd like to re-train some other orthotic makers to some of the more effective ways that will eliminate a lot of failure they see in their methods."

What is the most important thing you've learned in your business?

"I've learned in creating new orthotics to eliminate one variable at a time. Don't fix a lot of things at once -- then you don't know what works."

What advice would you give to someone considering your line of work?

"You have to work for someone in the field. I took official training and got certified but most of what they train you on is with the faulty stuff (orthotics) that don't work. If you want to break into this field, the best way would be to find a facility that wants to train from within and then when you have experience for a while you can get yourself certified. You have to be recommended for the course by a physician. There is no longer a board of orthotics. Now the certification comes from the American Board of Certification of Orthotics and Prosthetics."

Is there anything else you would rather be doing?

"No. I like making things with my hands and this gives me the opportunity to make innovations and help people."