The Walking Company

The Walking Company is a specialty retailer focused on comfort footwear, insoles, and related accessories for people who need supportive shoes they can wear all day. The brand serves customers who care about foot health, including professionals who are on their feet for long shifts and everyday shoppers looking for reliable walking and travel shoes.

The company built its reputation around premium comfort brands and shoes that work well with orthotics, rather than fashion-first or value-driven footwear. In its stores, staff traditionally spend time on fit and product education, helping customers understand which styles will support their specific needs. That service model set The Walking Company apart from general shoe chains that offer a broader but less specialized assortment.

The Walking Company grew up alongside the comfort-footwear boom of the 1990s and 2000s, as aging consumers and workers in healthcare, hospitality, and other on-your-feet occupations looked for better support in malls and open-air centers. As the brand expanded, it centered its brick-and-mortar presence in enclosed regional malls and busy shopping centers, positioning its stores as destinations for adult comfort and wellness footwear rather than full family footwear.

Like many mall-based retailers, The Walking Company eventually came under pressure from rising e-commerce, weaker mall traffic in some markets, and the cost structure of a national lease portfolio. In March 2018, the company filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure its debt and address those challenges, a move that aligned it with a broader wave of retail restructurings among specialty mall tenants at the time. Since that process, public reporting indicates that the brand has focused more on rationalizing stores and stabilizing operations than on rolling out large numbers of new locations, and specific details such as store count and founding year remain unconfirmed and should be independently verified before lease decisions are made.

As of December 2025, The Walking Company appears to operate with a smaller physical footprint than at its peak and to lean more heavily on direct-to-consumer and digital channels where it continues to serve a comfort- and wellness-oriented shopper. Any new or ongoing site decisions are described in public sources as selective and performance-driven rather than part of a broad national growth program, which means landlords are more likely to encounter existing legacy locations than aggressive new-market entries. For owners and leasing teams, an open Walking Company store can still bring a health-focused, older and professional customer base, and may perform best in centers that draw higher-income shoppers and have a strong mix of premium or wellness-oriented co-tenants.