Bedford, N.S. family orthotics business continues traditions for five generations

A Maritime family has been in the orthotics business for five generations.

Wednesday is World Podiatry Day and for Comfort Orthotics and Podiatry Clinic in Bedford, N.S., it is about more than celebrating healthy feet, but also a family legacy that’s stood for more than a century.

“Being able to carry the torch and do what my parents did all those years, it makes me emotional. This is how they raised me and my brother and now I am raising my son in the same business,” says Natasha Pieroway, the clinic’s owner.

For five generations, the family business has passed the torch and kept traditions going.

Their story began in the late 1800s with Fergella Shebib, who immigrated to Cape Breton from Lebanon.

“My great-grandfather immigrated from Lebanon in 1903 as a shoemaker and evolved to shoe repair when shoemaking went more central with factories. I left Cape Breton in 1985, and here I am,” says Tom Shebib, Natasha’s father.

Shebib transitioned the business into orthotics and podiatry and moved it to Bedford in 1991.

There were many changes over the years with splitting the services into two different stores, one for shoe repair and the other for podiatry and orthotics.

Eventually, the shoe repair store closed, and Comfort Orthotics and Podiatry Clinic has been open in Sunnyside Mall for more than a decade.

“We started to expand more as it became busier, and I realized I really couldn’t do it all on my own, so we had to move to a larger location and at that point we had three pedorthists, and four support staff. And then, in 2013, we realized the need for specific foot care, so we hired Phil from the U.K., who’s a pediatrist,” says Shebib.

The team now consists of 14 employees, including four podiatrists, and two people in the lab who make the orthotics on-site. Pieroway took over the store in 2024.

“When my dad first started making orthotics, he was probably making a couple pairs a week, maybe five to six pairs a week. Now we’re looking at about 50 to 75 pairs a week,” she says.

The family’s mindset has always been to serve the patients and customers’ needs. Each generation added their own services and details to the business, but one tradition that remains unchanged is honesty, something they all value.

“Just from being in the shoe repair that my grandfather ran in Cape Breton when he was doing that to what my dad was doing when I would go in there, shoes had changed from generation to generation. And what you can you do to fix them had changed,” says Pieroway.

“Seeing my dad kind of adopt the orthotics at that stage because he just saw the writing on the wall for that industry. Seeing the whole process and then just really kind of reinventing themselves in that way was really inspiring to see how they made that work.”

The clinic serves more than 37,000 patients and with every generation comes more innovations.

“I’ve brought a lot of new technology into the business, we switched some of our different technology providers, I did expand and develop the store a little bit to be able to add the fourth podiatrist, so we went through some renovations,” says Peiroway.

Pieroway plans to continue the family legacy of running more than just a clinic. She says it’s about honoring generations of work dedicated to helping others walk comfortably through life.

And for Shebib, watching his daughter carry on the legacy brings an indescribable sense of pride.

“That is as good as it gets… I know if dad was alive he would be so proud, it’s a family heritage that just keeps on going. I’m pretty proud,” he says.

With young kids in the family, the hope is the tradition will continue.

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