At Nine & Up in Oak Park, Ill., owners Tyra Banks (who shares her name with a supermodel) and

Nine & Up caters to women with larger feet.

Antwon Walker aim to offer fashion-forward quality shoes to women with larger feet. “Our customers come from all angles of Chicago, who just want beautiful shoes and can't find them anywhere,” Banks tells WSAToday.com. “We decided to open a store that would allow women to try them on, touch them, feel them.” The store sells shoes in sizes 9 to 13, but “what flies out of our doors is 11, 12 and 13,” Banks says. And since black is the color in the Windy City, Banks pays attention to the details. “The women in our town only wear black or jeans, so I try to offer them things they can accessorize. Skins do really well in our store, too. Men in Chicago have a thing with exotic skins, but the women can never find anything in those skins, unless it's a cowboy boot.”

Tarin by Pelle Moda

Price:

Retails for $165

“The Pelle Moda brand does excellent; I’m on the phone with them every week. [This shoe has an] octagon heel; it’s a sling peep-toe that’s patent leather with a metallic silver heel. It’s not heavy; it just feels good on their feet.”

Diva by Gwyneth

Price:

Retails for $175

“It’s a covered platform in the front with a 4-inch wooden heel. It’s a black shoe with black wooden heel and a squared peep-toe made with goat leather. They love the fact that it looks like a really high heeled shoe, but when they put it on it’s extremely comfortable. The platform in the front gives them support, so it’s not such a steep slope.”

Kimberlee by Samanta

Price:

Retails for $275

“I bought this shoe because of the leather on the inside; it’s butter soft like lambskin. When you put it on, it just feels so good. It has a pointy toe on it, so when my customer puts it on it has that lower heel and sexy point in front. It’s an ankle boot and you can wear it with slacks or with skirts.”

Aquarius by Pelle Moda

Price:

Retails for $215

“It’s an evening shoe. It has the strap across the front of the toe and crisscrosses around the arch. It does so well in our store because it gives them the bling bling. In Chicago, we do the bling bling anytime. I have it in silver, and I’m ordering it in gold. It looks like it’s floating on your foot with the stones.”

FlipFlops by Nine & Up

Price:

Retails for $50 to $70

“There are so few manufacturers [of larger sizes], we had to manufacture our own product. We could not find many vendors to do flipflops in large sizes, so we had to have them manufactured in India. These are all leather flipflops and they come in red, yellow, white, orange, green, black, purple, gold and silver. We took Swarovski crystals and made them go [all the way] back on the sandal.”

Connie by Nine & Up

Price:

Retails for $165

‘This type of shoe has the front at a point, and an ankle strap comes around the backing, but it’s not a mule or sling or pump. The middle of your foot is exposed. This shoe [is available] in a gray color and a mustard gold. It has a tassel coming down on the front, and a black patent leather bow holding the tassel down.”

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