Arnie is a Bay Area sculptor, fine artist, master shoemaker, and pioneer pedorthist whose life’s work has centered on understanding the human form and function through both craft and art.
Originally trained as a fine artist, Arnie studied art and sculpture at California State University, Northridge and the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles. At the time, his intention was to become an art professor. Teaching felt like a meaningful path that would allow him to connect with people and make a difference in their lives. What he did not yet realize was that this desire to help others would ultimately guide his career in a completely unexpected direction…
About Arnie Davis
From Artist to Pedorthist
After losing a shoe at the beach, he was able to craft a shoe himself using tools and leather he found in a garage. The experience revealed something important to him: what was missing in art was function. That moment sparked a realization that would define his professional career.
"I had this three-dimensional sensibility that made me feel like I could make anything," Davis said. "Losing my shoe helped me find my calling: making shoes for people to help them walk.”…
Founding Davis Shoe Therapeutics
Combining his artistic background with a growing fascination with anatomy and movement, Arnie began exploring the biomechanics of the human body and how footwear could restore balance, mobility, and comfort. In 1977, Arnie founded Davis Shoe Therapeutics in San Francisco’s Sunset District, a clinic and workshop dedicated to designing custom therapeutic footwear.
Over the next four decades, the small shop became one of the most respected pedorthic facilities in the country, and Arnie played a key role in bridging the worlds of traditional shoemaking and modern medical biomechanics. Through teaching, lecturing, and writing, he helped bring the science of gait and balance into a craft that had long relied primarily on tradition.
Yet even as his work in biomechanics flourished, Arnie never stopped being an artist…
A Sculpture Renaissance
Sculpture has always been a part of Arnie’s life, though for many years it took a backseat as his focus turned to therapeutic footwear. After decades devoted to his craft, he eventually returned to sculpture with renewed energy.
The same sensitivity to form, balance, and movement that informs his work with footwear also shapes his sculptural practice. His sculptures often explore the human figure and the emotional qualities expressed through posture and gesture. In many ways, the two disciplines remain inseparable. Whether shaping leather around a foot or shaping clay into the human form, Arnie approaches each with the same philosophy: careful craftsmanship guided by empathy for the human body and spirit...
Family at the Center
Family has always been at the center of his life and work. His wife Nancy and daughters Amy, Natalie, and Perri have supported and participated in the family business for many years, helping sustain the practice and the community that surrounds it. Those who know Arnie realize that he, his family, and his home are filled with warmth, conversation, music, and laughter.
Today, even in what many would consider retirement, Arnie continues to work as a pedorthist because the work remains deeply meaningful to him. Sculpture, meanwhile, has become an increasingly central part of his creative life. In the studio, he continues to explore the same themes that have guided him from the beginning: movement, humanity, craftsmanship, and the quiet emotional power of the human form.
For Arnie Davis, art and craft have never been separate pursuits. They are simply different ways of expressing the same lifelong devotion to creating beauty, restoring balance, and honoring the remarkable resilience of the human body.