PORTSMOUTH — There are larger footwear retailers than Irving’s Shoe Store in Portsmouth. Flashier ones, too. Stores with corporate advertising budgets, sprawling websites and warehouses full of inventory somewhere far from Aquidneck Island.

But for 125 years, Irving’s has survived — and thrived — by doing something increasingly rare: treating customers like neighbors.

That begins with owner Stuart Solup, whose smile seems permanently affixed somewhere between the shoe displays and repair counter.

“That’s just the way I am,” Solup said recently from behind the counter of the independently owned Portsmouth institution his family has operated for four generations. “You always have to have a smiling face when you’re dealing with customers, and it makes a good impression.”

That smile — along with an affable demeanor and an encyclopedic knowledge of footwear — may help explain why Irving’s has endured while so many small shoe stores have disappeared.

The story begins more than a century ago with Solup’s great-grandfather, Joe Solup, who emigrated from Russia carrying little more than a suitcase and a shoemaker’s trade.

“He never spoke the language here,” Solup said. “That’s remarkable when you think about it, right?”

Joe Solup had learned to make shoes by hand in Russia. After arriving in America, he peddled them from a cart in Fall River before eventually opening a storefront on Pleasant Street. His family joined him a few years later.

“He left his family there because they couldn’t bring everybody over at one time,” Solup said.

Enter the namesake

Eventually the business passed to Solup’s grandfather, Irving Solup — the namesake of the store — who operated it for decades in Fall River. When Irving became ill, Solup’s father, Edwin, shelved plans for college to keep the family business alive.

“He had to run the business,” Solup recalled.

Like many family businesses, Irving’s became less a job than a way of life. Solup remembers coming into the store as a little boy and stocking shelves as a teenager.

“I was brought up in the business,” he said.

The move to Portsmouth came almost accidentally in the late 1970s after a customer suggested the family open a store on Aquidneck Island. “We used to get Portsmouth, Middletown and Newport customers,” Solup said. “This customer said to my father, ‘Have you ever thought about opening a store on the island?’”

About six months later, the family opened a Portsmouth location near what is now Steve’s Pizza at the bottom of Quaker Hill. Edwin ran the island store while Stuart handled operations in Fall River. Edwin died at 57, however, and the business consolidated in Portsmouth.

Moving to the plaza

The current location in the Portsmouth Plaza at 3001 East Main Road almost never happened. Solup recalled uncertainty when neighboring Brooks Pharmacy considered expanding into a “super” store that would have displaced Irving’s.

“I had to know what to do because I had to do my buying about a year ahead of time,” he said. “I couldn’t get a lease out of them because they didn’t know what they were doing.”

Eventually, the family relocated a mile down the road. “It’s funny how things work out for a reason,” Solup said. “Everything’s timing in life.”

The move succeeded, though not everyone noticed immediately. Solup still laughs about a customer who recently called believing Irving’s had gone out of business decades ago.

“It’s only a mile,” he told her.

The store has become known for much more than selling shoes. Irving’s handles shoe repairs, fixes zippers and coats, and special-orders styles for customers who cannot find what they need elsewhere. A stack of repair bags near the counter serves as proof.

“Those are my repairs from last week,” Solup said. “I still have to call those people up.”

Specialty service

Irving’s is especially known for helping customers with orthopedic issues and hard-to-fit feet — a niche many chain stores no longer serve.

“We do orthopedic shoes for people that have problems with their feet,” he said.

The store also carries trusted brands such as New Balance, Saucony, Sperry and Rockport, but Solup insists the real difference is service.

“We fit the shoes to the people,” he said. “When you’re buying online, a lot of times it’ll look like the same shoe, but they’re makeups for that company specifically.”

Online shopping, he said, remains a gamble because sizing varies widely from style to style. “You never know if they’re gonna fit,” he said.

Instead, Irving’s has built its reputation the old-fashioned way: through loyal customers and word of mouth. “Word of mouth is better than 100 ads,” Solup said.

Loyal customer Angelo Ziurella of Newport agrees. 

“I’d come to him even is he was in Boston,” he said during a stop in the store on Tuesday. “When you find someone who gets what you need, why go anywhere else?”

“Did you ever hear the quote, ‘I’d walk a mile for a Camel?’” said Henry Urbaniak. “Well, I’d drive 30 minutes to see the shoe man.”

Urbaniak, a surgeon who lives in Barrington, was in Tuesday to drop off a pair of Ferragamos in need of repair.

That loyalty spans generations. In the 1970s, Irving’s fitted baby shoes for children who now return with children of their own. The store once supplied Portsmouth High School marching band shoes under legendary director Raymond Ainsworth. Today, Ainsworth’s daughter Leslie still shops there.

They’re still coming in

“We have generations now that are coming in,” Solup said. “Back in the ’70s, we put baby shoes on some of these kids and now those kids are bringing their kids.”

For Solup, that continuity matters deeply. So does the chance to remain part of the community he has served for decades through local organizations and everyday interactions alike.

“I love what I do. I love being with the people, just seeing the people. It’s a family business — four generations,” he said. 

“You don’t see too much of that anymore.”