Kent Basson is the founder of OddShoeFinder.com. The idea came about after Kents sister suffered a foot injury that resulted in her having to buy two different sized shoes. After searching the web, he discovered the problem is far more common than he imagined -- almost 10% of the U.S. population wears – or should wear – a different sized shoe on each foot. Realizing this must result in millions of unused mismatched pairs of shoes fueled Bassons interest to start OddShoeFinder.com

Many people with feet of different sizes buy one pair each of the same shoe in two different sizes, leaving a closet full of unused mismatched shoes,” says website founder Kent Basson. The purpose of this site is to help those people get shoes out of their closets and put money into their pockets. Getting paid to clean out your closet seems like a pretty good deal to me.”

Basson says there are at least two major organizations devoted to providing shoes to amputees and people with mismatched feet: the National Odd Shoe Exchange and the One Shoe Crew. He says their combined mailing lists are estimated at 23,000 people. However, because of the many brands, styles, and colors of shoes available, it is virtually impossible for those organizations to find a matching pair of shoes in each of an individuals shoe sizes. Basson says there are also organizations that attempt to match people with shoes in their sizes, but the odds against two people matched in this way having similar shoe buying needs and habits are astronomical.

I realized that there must be a better way of getting unused, mismatched shoes out of people's closets and to the people who need them,” said Basson. Thus, OddShoeFinder.com was born.

The site allows users to list their single shoes or mismatched pairs of shoes for sale and to search for other single shoes or mismatched pairs of shoes for sale in their sizes. The site also allows a user shoes to add a link to a listing of the same shoe on a retail site. This serves two purposes. First, the retail listings usually provide a good description of the shoe. Second, rather than buying two pairs of shoes, a user can buy a single shoe or a pair of mismatched shoes from another user of the site, and a pair of the same brand, style, and color in the size of the buyers opposite foot from the linked – or – another) retailer. Once the shoes arrive from the retailer, the buyer can post the shoe(s) not in their size(s) for sale on the site. Ultimately, a user can potentially save the cost of one pair of shoes minus shipping expenses.

The ultimate goal,” says Basson, is to achieve a ‘critical mass of users, after which there should be enough shoes posted on the site that almost every user will find a wide range of mismatched pairs in their sizes, avoiding the necessity of buying additional shoes from retail sources.”

Its no longer a dream to find pairs of shoes for mismatched feet. Please visit www.OddShoeFinder.com for more information.