Maurice Breton was a veteran of the footwear industry and had spent years working in footwear when he saw an opportunity.

After watching lower-end footwear retailers be gobbled up by chains, Breton made a departure for a new demographic: well-heeled crowds in urban, walkable areas.

The D.C. area was the perfect place. He moved his family from Virginia Beach and opened the first Comfort One Shoes in 1993.

“I told my family I was going to open an empire,” Breton jokes. “We’re still working on that. It’s a work in progress.”

As independent shoe retailers go, Comfort One could be considered an empire with its 17 retail locations and 120 employees — a large network for a privately owned retailer of better-grade shoes, according to Breton.

His son, Garrett, joined the company as a teenager in 1994.

Garrett started at the bottom, cleaning bathrooms. And after working nearly every job in the company, he now serves as its vice president of merchandise and marketing.

“I…