meet our pedorthists

Wade Nield is the owner of Feet 1st Shoes, Inc. He was born and raised in Jacksonville, but has also lived in Orlando, Florida and Charlotte, North Carolina. 

Wade graduated from the University of Central Florida with a bachelor's degree in finance. He also graduated from the Florida School of Banking at the University of Florida.

Prior to starting Feet 1st, Wade worked in the banking field for twenty three years and last served as Senior Vice President and Director of Business Marketing for the fourth largest bank in the country. In 2002 he decided to return to Jacksonville to start a business. Wade likes to tell people that divine guidance is what led him to enter the field of Pedorthics. There were just too many twists and turns along the path to starting this business to explain it away as happenstance.

In preparation for starting the business, Wade attended the Eneslow School of Pedorthics at the New York College of Podiatry.  

Wade is married and has five adult children and two grandchildren. He and his wife Tracy reside in Jacksonville. In his spare time Wade enjoys fishing, boating, scuba diving and traveling.

Andrew was born in Connecticut,  but has lived all over the United States and overseas in Switzerland while growing up  because his father was a professional journalist. Andrew loved music as a child and became a self-taught musician who plays the guitar, bass, piano and drums. 

Because of his love for music, he enrolled in audio engineering classes at Full Sail University in Orlando. Following school, Andrew made his way back to Charlotte, North Carolina where he found work at an outdoor store selling hiking, rock climbing and camping equipment. While there, he worked under the direction of a certified Pedorthist who introduced him to the biomechanical side of pedorthics. In 2017 Andrew moved to Jacksonville to be near family and joined the team at Feet 1st Shoes where he continued to expand his understanding of biomechanics and pedorthics. In 2018 Andrew graduated from the Hanger School of Orthotics and Prosthetics at St. Petersburg College. Now, as a licensed Pedorthist Andrew sees patients with a wide range of foot conditions.

Andrew is an accomplished mountain climber and has scaled many of the highest peaks in the United States. In the summer of 2021 he made a four week climb of Denali in Alaska, reaching the summit at 20,300 feet elevation on June 29th. Having met many of his climbing goals and desiring a high energy sport he could pursue closer to home, Andrew has recently been pursuing skydiving. 

Andrew lives in the Riverside section of Jacksonville with his long time girlfriend Payton.