Home > ABOUT ME!
Hi, my name is Nicola and I am a second generation shoe professional and footwear is in my blood!
I grew up surrounded by shoes both at the family factory and shoe shop. I used to earn my pocket money working in the factory making boxes, putting shoe fronts together, cutting leather, gluing socks into shoes, sewing – you name it I did it! I also spent many hours watching my father make footwear and learning about shoe design and how shoes need to be constructed to be fashionable and comfortable.
A true shoe-a-holic I owned many pairs of shoes in all styles and designs - I even supported myself through University working in shoe stores although a lot of my wages went back into purchasing shoes!
With the lifting of tariffs on importing footwear; production of footwear in New Zealand in true “Kiwi” fits has reduced and footwear shopping has become a nightmare for many of us! I found my trendy, modern, wide fitting, comfortable footwear collection dwindling as in most footwear stores the only thing that would fit me was the shoe box!
The dream for Twinklefeet.co.nz started when I got married in 2005. My bridesmaid and I went to every shoe store we could dream of looking for wide width high heels and I could not get my foot into anything – Cinderella was not my name.
I finally ordered some wide sized bridal shoes in. When these arrived they were completely different from what I had ordered and did not fit correctly but I was out of time and options! Luckily I have a father that has many manufacturing skills and he remade the shoes for me, lowering the heel and also making the style wider and voilà I had a beautiful, comfortable pair of wide width high heels to wear and dance the night away in!
I realised that you are not all lucky enough to have a footwear specialist in your family and the dream to open Twinklefeet.co.nz began.
I was lucky enough to go to the Las Vegas shoe fair in July 2007 and to find attractive, stylish, trendy and fashionable wide fitting footwear. I wanted to bring half of the shoes I saw home in my suitcase. I also went one step further and looked for footwear that is comfortable for you to wear
Twinklefeet.co.nz launched in March 2008 and continues to grow. If you were wondering where the name comes from..............it is my vision that just because we have wide feet it does not mean we cannot have pretty shoes and fashion!
In April 2011 I also took the step to open a retail store in Auckland
In 2014 I had a new website designed and at this time also decided to rebrand the website to Shoe Talk to match in with my retail store. There is a wee story behind this name as well as it is what my mother called her shoe store as well!
In July 2014 I also expanded the store to take on staff members.
In April 2017 I expanded and opened a second store on Clyde Road in Browns Bay.
In the beginning of 2021 change happened again and I closed both my stores in Auckland, moved to Wanganui and got involved with the family business. You can still see the range here online and also at Stevens Footwear, 63 Station Road, Marton :-)
All the best,
Nicola