Thanks everyone for the help –

I got want I wanted, by experimenting and partially fallowing a tutorial for paints. This is what I did. I ended up with two figures: r shoe and l shoe – but they do conform to the figure I want and work well:

1. Start with shoes from another model – had to do one shoe at a time - move them until one fits the model I want to use them on, export it as OBJ: only the one shoe, only options: weld body part seams
2. Open new empty scene, import the OBJ back into Poser: un-check all options
3. With the shoe selected, open the setup tab, open library window, find the model you want to use the shoe on and double click it – a pop up will ask you if you want to automatically group the geometry. Select yes.
4. Delete all the bones except for the shin down – go back to Pose tab and save the shoe as a figure
5. Do the same for the other shoe

cheers