Anybody in real life use a shoe repair guy?

[Cool 50th AE]

I remember seeing lots of shoe repair shops back in the day.

What the heck happened?

[LATB]

Shoes are now designed and manufactured as throwaways.

[MadInNc]

Amazon. Disposable product mentality and hard to resole Nike’s

[BRUIZER]

Shoe repair guy went the way as the tv repair guy?

[Cool 50th AE]

It really stinks that the quality of anything is now substituted with junk.
A quality crafted pair of shoes back in the day would last half a lifetime.

[Steve_R]

Why pay to repair them when you can sell them to UD on eBay?

[Big bob]

I still get my boots resoled just send them back to the maker. Or have a new pair made they still have books with customers measurements from over a hundred years. Not cheap but the best I ever had.

[Cool 50th AE]

You know what really sucks is my father was a clothing person.
I remember him buying shoes in the early 70’s that cost like $600 pair.
And all his suits were ridiculously expensive for the time.

What really sucks is that after his death my mom just gave it all away.
He had an extensive tie collection that I would have loved to keep even though I really never wore a tie in my life.

[Bill]

I've had boots resoled before. They'll clean them up and they'll look like the day you walked out of the store with them, save for the usual and customary creasing on the toe area.

You're likely to find a shoe repair shop adjacent to larger dry cleaners, specifically, the plant store where they actually do the cleaning. Same for alterations.

[Bruze]

Originally Posted by Cool 50th AE

I remember seeing lots of shoe repair shops back in the day.

What the heck happened?

Imported shoes/boots are cheap enough to toss when there's a problem. When I was still working a pair of $40-50 work boots would last me several years, and I was walking on steel chips most of the time. Back in the '80s I bought a $75 pair of boots and they came apart after a while (and not fixable, according to a cobbler I went to) so I went back to the cheap ones.

How much would a cobbler need today for an hour's shop rate? More than new boots would cost.

FWIW, my dad had a cobbler's anvil and repaired all our shoes, putting half soles and heels on them. He was a young man during the Depression and learned these oddball things out of necessity. I'm guessing the anvil came from his father.

[IrishSpuds]

We still have some in NYC. Even though suits are history, a lot of folks still wear dress shoes to work. I do and I buy my shoes from an outfit called Allen Edmonds. Decent US made shoes worth having heals / soles replaced at least. Most brands of shoes are dogshit imports that are barely worth polishing, much less repairing.

[Black94lt1]

We still have one shop in town. I had them put new heals on a pair of dress shoes a few years ago, well worth the $30 or so

[Torqaholic]

Used one about 50 years ago. The soles were worn out. He did a good job of stitching a new sole on at a fraction of the cost for replacement.

Funny you mention it though. Repaired my own last week. The sole was delaminating. Stopped at a sporting goods shop and bought some glue intended for fletching arrows. The tube said it was flexible and waterproof. Required a 24 hour cure, worked like a charm.

Was intending to replace them but they changed the design. Instead of a side zipper with the tongue attached at the bottom it was attached all the way up to the top of the boot without a zipper, only laces. Same exact brand but I couldn't even fit my foot in the damned thing going a size larger. Ta hell with that.

[Yadkin]

In the evolution of product design there comes a time where a decision is made to forget about the guy who has to fix it. Eventually the thing becomes disposable. The turning point for many products came in the 1970s.

[Tikiman]

Had a favorite pair of cowboy boots resoled and reheeled by a lady in town. Wore those soles out as well. Her shop is still in business.

[slewfoot]

Originally Posted by Cool 50th AE

I remember seeing lots of shoe repair shops back in the day.

What the heck happened?

I wear western boots. Some are pricy and the heels usually wear pretty fast. I will take them to a local cobbler for replacements. $30-$40 repair is better than chucking $200 pair of boots

[LATB]

Originally Posted by Cool 50th AE

You know what really sucks is my father was a clothing person.
I remember him buying shoes in the early 70’s that cost like $600 pair.
And all his suits were ridiculously expensive for the time.

What really sucks is that after his death my mom just gave it all away.
He had an extensive tie collection that I would have loved to keep even though I really never wore a tie in my life.

Your family was well off. My family was buying $600 cars.

[stingraymyway]

Use to be a shoe repair shop near my area. Guy retired and no one took over the business. Cheap Chinese made, if you can call the latest Air Jordan’s cheap, are a damn joke. Quality shoes, like all articles of clothing, have spiraled down to useless trash that reflects today’s society.

[roadpilot]

I still use a cobbler. I dont wear expensive cloths but I do wear expensive
shoes/boots. I prefer American cloths and shoes, even if you pay more than
Chinese and other country's.

[Mick]

There is one about a mile from my house. When I was working, a good pair of Florsheim shoes cost well over $200, and the uppers would outlast the soles by a factor of 2-4. I had shoes re-soled many times. My wife had many pairs repaired or re-heeled when she was working as well.

We were far from alone, as there always seemed to be at least s few other people in the store when I went.