Nobil's Shoes

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From the 1950s through the 1970s, Nobil’s Shoes was
 a busy store in downtown Huntington.

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File photo | The Herald-Dispatch            

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From the 1950s through the 1970s, Nobil’s Shoes was a
 busy store in downtown Huntington. Initially it was
 located at 937 3rd Ave. When the Anderson-Newcomb
 Department Store expanded into that storeroom,
 Nobil’s moved to 819 3rd Ave. The Huntington
 shoe store was one of hundreds owned and
 operated by the Endicott-Johnson Corp.               

It was George F. Johnson who built Endicott-Johnson into a
 shoemaking and retailing giant. Johnson began working at a
 New England shoe factory when he was just 13 years old.
 He rapidly rose through the ranks at the factory. In
 1881 his father, also in the shoe business, was offered
 a managerial position in Binghamton, New York,
 which he decided to turn down. George F. went
 in his place and convinced the factory owner
 that despite being much younger and less
 experienced than his father, he was
 the right man for the job.

Later, Henry B. Endicott took on Johnson as a partner
 in his shoe company, and the Endicott-Johnson Shoe
 Co. was born. Endicott died in 1920, leaving control
 of the company in the Johnson family’s hands.
 After decades of steady growth, Endicott-Johnson
 had 250 shoe stores, operating under various
 names, located throughout the Midwest.

Like many other shoe stores at that time, the Huntington Nobil’s
 store had a shoe-fitting fluoroscope. The machines were widely
 used, particularly when buying shoes for children, whose
 shoe size continually changed. A customer (adult or
 child) would put their feet into the machine, which
 would display an X-ray image of their feet and
 shoes. From the outset, health experts voiced
 concerns about the repeated use of the
 fluoroscopes, which they feared might
 cause cancer. One by one, various
 states banned the use of the
 machines and ultimately they
 vanished from shoe
 stores.

According to records in the West Virginia
 Secretary of State’s office, the Nobil’s
 store in Huntington closed in 1981.

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Note:  This Article and picture appeared in the Herald-Dispatch Newspaper on Sept. 10, 2024.

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