What are the opening hours?

Monday 8am - 5pm Tuesday 8am - 5pm Wednesday 8am - 5pm Thursday 8am - 5pm Friday 8am - 5pm Saturday 8am - 1pm

Bilby shoes

Pedorthics & Footwear Retailer. Custom made, modified, extra depth or just really comfortable footwear. And we have never, ever met a foot we couldn't fit

Melbourne's leading Pedorthic clinic providing biomechanical assessments, orthotics, medical grade footwear, custom made footwear and in-shoe pressure mapping, by appointment only.

12/09/2025

Diabetes and your feet. Step 1
Not many people know the risk that diabetes can have on you're feet and it can be significant, but mostly avoidable.

Some, if not all of the issue associated with diabetes and you're feet can be avoided and or significantly reduced by taking a few simply steps...gosh l love a good pun!

First step.
Everyday, just before bed, inspect you're feet, run your hands over them to check that there are no new lumps, bumps or sores. They might be the build up of callus skin, a small blister that you think is, well, just a little lump, bump, blister or cut.

When you do find something that wasnt there yesterday, thats when you call your local podiatrist and book an appointment for a foot assessment. Make sure you tell them you have diabetes and you need your feet checked.

Let the foot experts do their thing. They will tend to any issues and give you some great advice about keeping you're feet save.

We will cover a few other issues over the next few weeks, l hope you can follow us.

The image you see below, that is pressure mapping of a patients feet, we placed sensors inside the footwear and got them to walk around in our clinic to measures the pressure under their feet, pretty amazing technology, 960 individual sensors working to build a picture.

We will get to the how and why in the next few weeks.

08/09/2025

Custom made footwear, Colour selection: This is the fun part of my job.

Sitting down with the patient and their carers/family and deciding what they would like to see in their new custom made footwear.

Whilst we need to work with the shape and function of the feet, things like the design, fastenings and colours are all about personal choice.

Side zip for easy donning, pull tabs, laces for firm supporting adjustment, sole up the toe to protect from damage from stairs and we are off.

Bilby shoes are by appointment only. Phone Rebekah on 9465 0880 for your next appointment.

18/08/2025

Patients having fun and living life their way.

Recent a family sent me an image of a orange and white Converse (top left corner) and asked me to make a similar pair for their sister, who requires custom made footwear MGF, and this can be a challenge.

Whilst we can copy most of the upper design and closely match the materials and colours the footwear still needs to fore fill their needs, matching the shape and function requirements of her feet.

This is when things become complicated, one of the main features that people see and like about the Converse is the shape that the last has created, the last is shallow and the patients last is quite deep and that is when its important that we have that conversation of matching patient expectations, it will have some of the features but wont look exactly the same.

This patient and her very supportive family are excellent in understanding the limitations of this type of work.

This pair made on the patients last, made from a 3D scan of the feet feature a side zip for easy donning, rocker sole and lacing for adjustment and we left the star off to avoid getting into any copywrite issues.

Bilbyshoes is a family based business and is by appointment only.

11/08/2025

Made for you: That is precisely what custom made MGF(medical grade footwear) are all about.
This young man wanted something that reflected who he is and a black boot wasnt going to that for him. We presented him with a selection of different leathers, together we drew a picture of what he thought it should look like and we set to making it happen, for him.
Whilst the picture of just the boot may look like the topline is miss shaped, it is infact shaped to fit snuggly around the young mans AFO's.

To do this we did something special, we took the 3D laser scan of his feet with the AFO's on, we then 3D printed that model and made the boot to fit.

If you need custom made MGF and you think you would like something different, phone Rebekah on 9465 0880 and make an appointment to my son's and l.
Bilby shoes is by appointment only.

06/08/2025

This week, we celebrate 30 years as a company, Bilby shoes.

It has been a very interesting journey to say the least.

My wife Soula and l started out with 1 sewing machine that was about 15 years old, a beading machine about 30years old and a skiver that was over 50 years old, looked a bit museum like but that was what we had to start with.
We also became contactors for other shoe companies, making what they couldn't for brands like Clark shoes, Koala shoes, Windsor smith, Dianna Ferrari and one of the first extra depth shoe brands plus our own Bilby shoes. Peaking production at 4,500 pair of uppers and some completed footwear each week. Sadly l didnt think to take photos and until it was nearly all over for mass production, because the winds of change were about to happen.

Then, in 2000 the Australian Government changed the rules for manufacturing footwear in Australia, the 45% tariff dropped to zero on all imported footwear was removed "TCF tariffs should be reduced steadily to 5 per cent by 1 July 2008.(6) For example, they proposed in relation to clothing and other finished textiles that the tariff rates be reduced to 25% in 2000, 22% in 2001, 19% in 2002, 16% in 2003, 13% in 2004, 11% in 2005, 9% in 2006, 7% in 2007 and 5% in 2008.(7)", this was a pivotal moment, this sent almost every shoemaker broke or overseas bar a few of us, it nearly destroyed us too, tuff times for all but somehow we survived.

These days business has evolved as all business do, we have grown and we have changed, we still offer footwear solutions but these days by using the latest tech including 3D scanning, 3Dprinting and pressure mapping your gait for better outcomes and we even host training events for other allied health professionals, our 3 adult children now run the business and the future looks great.

l wonder what the next 30 will hold for us all?

10/07/2025

Can you see what l see?
When we do modifications to footwear, the idea is that it should support the needs of the individual, without standing out too much.
This pair of Drew shoes has had two different modifications to improve the individuals life.
The first modification is at the rear of the shoe, a buttress, this is when we extend the sole wider than it was before, about 15mm wider and then extend that soling material further up the footwear, above where the sole would normally finish, in this case about 20mm higher. The purpose in this case is to stop the foot twisting over during the gait cycle making the individual for more stable and less likely to sprain their ankle.

The second modification is a zip was added, it extends from the top line of the shoe down to the big toe joint, this will make it easier for getting the footwear on for any individual that has weak hand strength and it allows for greater independents when dressing.

Bilbyshoes, Est 1995, we are by appointment only so give Rebekah a call on 94650880 and book an appointment to come and see my sons and l for your next footwear and orthosis assessment.

05/07/2025

A splash of colour.
Sometimes that's all it takes to turn the mondain into the l want to wear boot.
This custom made boot features a side zip to allow for easier donning and the velcro straps, to together they give greater independence to those that need it.

This custom boot is Australian made, right here in our Thomastown facility by my sons and l.

If you need a custom made footwear solution, give Rebekah a call on 9465 0880 and she will book you in for an appointment.

We are NDIS, HCP, DVA and SWEP approved providers for footwear and orthosis. Bilby shoes establish 1995.

21/05/2025

Footwear modifications: Sole build up, 20mm, left shoe.
This type of modification is done for people that have a leg shorter than the other leg, sometimes from birth, sometimes from hip replacement and sometimes as a result of an accident.

This patient really likes the feel and look of her Convers boots.

With a 20mm leg length difference they dont need custom made footwear, they just need a "simple" sole modification. In this case, we have cut the outer sole off, applied the sole build up of 20mm and re attached the original sole to keep the look that they wanted.

Bilby shoes are providers for TAC, DVA, NDIS, SWEP, HCP, we are by appointment only, so give Rebekah a call on 9465 0880 and she can assist in booking your next appointment

16/05/2025

And we are back! Open again this Monday the 19th of May.
Thank you for your patience.

Its been a really big week for us, the team from ridgeplumbing.com.au did a great job.
Old aircon out, replaced half the roof, added new guttering with 3 times the capacity of the old and also added insultation.

We had perfect weather during the week with clear sunny days and no wind.

Today, as if by design its raining for a real world test!
Looking forward to staying dry this winter even when those big storms hit the area.

09/05/2025

This week Michael and l, spent some time with Northern health podiatry and orthotic teams. Talking about footwear modification, custom made footwear and pressure mapping. Its always great to catch up with a team of like minded people.
We all want to know more, do more and deliver better outcomes for our patients and this is how we all do it, team effort and the sharing of knowledge.

Big thank you to Jack Yeung and Stephen Tucker

08/05/2025

Bilby shoes will be closed May 12th until May 19th as we under go major works, we apologies for any inconvenience this may cause you.

19/03/2025

printed (not) midsole.
As most of you know, we 3D print our custom lasts and we are always thinking of what might be the next bright idea?

In this case we 3D printed TPU, a softer more flexible material than we use for our last printing and used this opportunity to select from a broader range of colours than we have available to us in the standard EVA soling materials.

So what we have printed is a 5mm thick side wall for the sole that fits over the sole and above the feather edge onto the upper by about 5mm, beyond the bright purple TPU material selected by the patient is our standard black EVA soling.

The same 3D model we used for printing the last was now adapted to print this side wall, with allowances created to allow for the 1.5mm leather upper, 1.2mm lining leather and the 3mm heel stiffener.

You will notice we havent made the print job down to the ground, but there is a 6mm soling that makes contact with the ground, the reason for this is to improve the longevity of the footwear and this amazing feature, giving us a little bit more time before they wear down to the purple and we can still repair the worn sole and not damage the beautiful purple side wall.

The end result is a purple side wall that matched the patients wants, her favourite colour.

Address

2 Northgate Drive
Thomastown, VIC
3074

Opening Hours

Monday	8am - 5pm
Tuesday	8am - 5pm
Wednesday	8am - 5pm
Thursday	8am - 5pm
Friday	8am - 5pm
Saturday	8am - 1pm

Telephone

+61394650880

Website

https://www.bilbyshoes.com.au/

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