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On Aug. 23, 2002, Leland Bonnett was on the clock, getting a drink of water at the Safeway distribution center in Spokane when a co-worker got careless with a forklift. Bonnett lost all of his toes and chunks of both feet. Out-of-the-box shoes have been out of the question ever since.

The orthopedic shoe company Bonnett was referred to wouldn’t build him boots, and his feet slipped around in their shoes. Neither of Spokane’s well-respected boot-makers — White’s and Nick’s — could do anything for him. Scouring the Internet for solutions, Bonnett found an orthopedist in Seattle who pointed him toward a shoemaker in Pike Place Market named Walter DeMarsh, the owner and sole employee of Mobeta Shoes. DeMarsh said he could help, but that he’d have to meet Bonnett at his shop.