J21 Tube's video: Mother of two who quit her high flying job to build a 2MILLION accessories empire creates a footwea

Mother-of-two who quit her high-flying job to build a £2MILLION accessories empire creates a footwear line for ‘ladies who can’t wear heels’ Lisa Kay, 53, from London, took a gamble when she left her accountancy job Entrepreneur went on to launch an accessories business with her husband She has just launched a footwear line aimed at women suffering from bunions Designer used her technical expertise to dream up her new specialist heels A woman who quit a high-flying City career to launch her own fashion label has designed a pioneering footwear collection for 'ladies who can't wear heels'. Lisa Kay, 53, from north London, took a leap of faith when she left her accountancy job while expecting her first child to start a company with her husband - but now says business is booming with the pair turning over £2million last year alone. The mother-of-two has high hopes for her latest venture, heels aimed at the 10 million women in the UK who suffer from bunions. Lisa, who is mother to Oliver, 26 and Zak, 22, with husband Roger, 55, told FEMAIL: 'Leaving behind my career felt like a huge jump but I was confident in my ability and I always had the support of my husband.' The couple started out making handcrafted flourescent belts in a factory in Shoreditch, east London, which were quickly snapped up by the likes of Selfridges, John Lewis and, eventually, Topshop. Their company, which started out as a 'small cottage industry', has gone from strength to strength as the pair eventually branched into accessories and eventually footwear in 1999. 'I wanted to develop a collection of shoes which are both deep and wide enough for the "bunioned" foot, whilst still looking really stylish and fashionable,' Lisa explains. 'The shoe business is incredibly technical, so it took years of face-to-face meetings with the last-maker, and multiple adjustments to the hand-crafted wooden lasts (adding small amounts of putty to the lasts, shaving them down with a rasp, re-moulding and altering the shapes). 'We did this while developing the rest of the components which comprise our patent-pending Juanet Technology (juanet taking its name from the Spanish word for bunion).' The shoes feature: . Three distinct layers of high quality memory foam underfoot to cushion, support and protect the foot; . A ‘bunion bed’, stretch panel inside the shoes to accommodate and comfort the bunion area which is invisible from the outside of the shoes; . A ‘kuki’, an anti-pronating device to counter inward rolling of the foot . Luxuriously soft upper materials and lining for ultimate comfort. These days, they employ 15 people and turned over nearly £2million last year alone, with Lisa regularly jetting out to Spain and Italy to visit her shoe and handbag factories. Lisa has now put her technical expertise to good use after unveiling her latest collection, Sole Bliss, this month. 'I have always been aware of the huge number of women who suffer from bunions and can’t fit into stylish shoes,' said Lisa. 'I often try to accommodate these bony prominences when designing our shoes and cutting our patterns, but I also understand that it is not just the styling of the shoe that counts. The whole construction of the shoe with all its various components needs to be considered when accommodating bunions.' The shoes, which were 'years' in the making, feature memory foam, a 'bunion bed' and a special device to counter inward-rolling of the foot. Lisa's vision for Sole Bliss is for women to slip their feet into shoes that are fashionable, 'feel like slippers,' and make them exclaim that they 'haven’t been able to wear a heel like this in years'. The collection comprises mid- and high-heeled shoes, including courts and slingbacks, in a range of colours. 'We’ve started the brand with elegant shoes because our years of market research told us that this is the area where ladies with bunions and sensitive feet struggle the most,' said Lisa, who now has her sights set on ankle boots and block heels. What exactly are bunions? Just as no two human beings are the same, so each bunion differs hugely in severity and appearance. 'Bunions occur when the foot rolls inwards, putting weight onto the metatarsal bone — the lower joint of the big toe,' says consultant podiatrist Emma Supple. 'Over time, the bone becomes inflamed and the surrounding area swells with synovial fluid — the lubricating fluid which protects the bone — which, in turn, prevents the muscles and ligaments from holding the toe straight. 'In the worst case scenario, the joint can actually detach. Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-4321226/Lisa-Kay-launches-shoes-ladies-t-wear-heels.html Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook