Jan Schutrups, 63, said his father urged him in the early 1980s to specialize when he expressed an interest in joining his parents’ shoe store in Exloo. The business grew from the small shop into a company with about 65 employees, its own innovation department and a complete foot care street.

Schutrups said describing the business simply as a shoe store would undersell its activities. The account did not provide further details about the company’s current operations or status.