Robinson Daily News

Grundman Shoes offers variety here



Grundman Shoes is now open on the square in Robinson. Randy Harrison | Daily News

Grundman Shoes is now open on the square in Robinson. Randy Harrison | Daily News

In 1929, Michael Gustav Grundman began crafting baby shoes in his Vincennes basement.
From those humble beginnings grew a business that produces custom-made shoes for customers around the world. It is also Robinson’s newest retailer.
Grundman Shoes, Vincennes, has opened a retail outlet in the Hill Building on the west side of the Crawford County Courthouse square, leasing space from Kim’s Alterations. It opened Oct. 1, focusing on men’s and safety shoes but has already expanded to include dress and casual shoes and women’s and children’s footwear.
“Everyone has been very welcoming,” co-owner Tracie Grundman-McNeece told the Daily News. “It’s been nice.”
Grundman-McNeece and her brother, Mark Grundman Jr., are the fifth generation of their family to own the business that stated as M.G. Grundman and Sons 92 years ago.
Their great-grandfather, Mark Gustav, started the business in his Sixth Street home before moving to the corner of Seventh and Harrison in Vincennes. There, his basement factory produced shoes that were offered for sale in the ground floor retail store. He also got into wholesale, offering his baby shoes to small, independent shoe stores in southern Indiana and Illinois.
The business expanded after his sons, Robert and Vernon, returned from World War II.
As it grew in the 1950s, the company moved into its current location on Seventh Street in Vincennes. Adult shoes were added, with the company producing eight different styles.
“Because we made them, we could also customize them,” Grundman-McNeece explained.
In those days, wider and larger shoes could be difficult to come by, so the Grundmans began making shoes for customers who couldn’t acquire proper fitting footwear elsewhere. They also made shoes for amputees, persons with mismatched feet and other deformities, who wore braces or who had other issues. Early customers — and later their families — would continue to purchase their shoes from the Grundmans for years.
Robert’s son, Mark Sr., took over the business in the 1980s and began getting into pedorthics, the use of custom footwear to manage and treat conditions of the foot, ankle, and lower extremities.
Grundman began crafting prescription shoes for persons with diabetic complications. Grundman-McNeece, a certified pedorthist, said insurance providers began paying for preventative footwear when it became apparent it was less costly than paying for amputations.
Grundman-McNeece joined in the company in 1999 and is president of the company. Her brother joined about a decade later.
The company continues to make medical shoes, often filling wholesale orders for physicians from around the country and other parts of the globe whose patients have special needs. However, its other customized footwear business has dwindled as larger, wider shoes have become more common. Meanwhile, its retail sales of Grundman and other brand names have increased.
Much of Grundman’s business is providing safety shoes for area industry. Its “shoemobile,” which does fittings for steel-toed shoes and work boots, often traveled Robinson to provide shoes for employees Marathon, Hershey, Bradford Supply, Dana and others.
“My brother got the idea of just having a shop there,” Grundman-McNeece said.
Grundman’s corporate customers have set amounts they have agreed to pay for shoes and boots. Employees only have to pay the difference. Some companies even have it set up so the employee’s share is deducted from his or her pay.
Originally, the idea was to just offer safety footwear, but it soon became clear that there was a demand for much more. Women’s and children’s shoes were added here last week.
The Robinson store, managed by Grundman-McNeece’s husband Shane, is primarily a retail shop. Shoes in need of repairs can be dropped off and picked up there, too, with the actual repair work being done at the Vincennes facility. Most custom orders — and all medical ones — need to be handled in Vincennes.
The Robinson store is open 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday, the later closing time chosen to make it easier for laborers to come in to purchase shoes.

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