Dead or perhaps dying craft

[Major 2]

 

This is frustrating, I simply wanted to get a pair of my old boots resoled & heeled .... in leather !

I went to the so called best Shoe repair in town, they can't do leather  are you kidding me ?
They will put on a crape work sole with built in heel or a Vibram sole. 
Not what I want, but he assured me it was !  said I be happier ... 

What will make me happy (ier) is for them not to tell me what I want ! .... but do what I want.

RANT over ...

I'll find a guy (I hope) he may be 80 or 90 and true old school cobbler, with gnarly finger joints from years of quality boot & shoe work.
He's the guy I want !   

[GunClick Rick]

Good luck none here either,when i was growing up there was an old italian cobler with polish stand,i use to hang around Main Street,still do just got back home with my grand duaghter,i took her down there as my grandfather took me to go see my aunts and uncles workin for Woolsworth and JC Pennys and such,i would go visit the cobler just so i could smell the leather and polish and besides he had a stuffed skunk in the window ya can't beat that for a days excursion..Guess who has a skunk now 

But then one day he was gone and the other one that was here didn't last much longer,i mean it was just what ya did,wear your boots till they flopped and have cat paws and leather put on.Won't be long till our sidearms are phasers,but mines gonna be shaped like a 45! 

[Camano Ridge]

Give these guys a call  http://www.nushoe.com/western-boots-shoe-repair.html

[Sir Charles deMouton-Black]

American crafsmen are long gone.  The European immigrants from the WWII time are dieing rapidly.  Currently I find the best shoe repairmen are Asian. Perhaps Latin American immigrants still have the 19th Century skills.

OTOH: perhaps, after the long forecast demise of CAS, our leatherworkers will have a new career.

[Slamfire]

  'Major",,if you will pm me , I think I can fix you right up,,,. I do boot & saddle repair,,,w/ leather.








  Hootmix.

[dwight55]

We have an older fellow hereabouts, . . . one of the nicest people you would ever want to meet, . . . what ever you want or need in shoes & boots, . . . Mr. Martin will do it for you if it is regular stuff.

May God bless,
Dwight

[GunClick Rick]

Feelin better already 

[Fox Creek Kid]

It's not dead. You just need a barrel full of money and a plane ticket to London!!     

Watch how the best (and most expensive) shoemaker in the World does it. By the way, a pair of shoes start at over $3K!!

http://www.johnlobb.com/us/190-steps-step-1

[Mogorilla]

Go to New York City and walk around Chinatown.   I sat and watch a gentleman make shoes on a portable cobbler bench.  It was impressive, and prices were reasonable.   I do know that the cobbler business picked up here in the midwest during the downturn in the economy.  I told a friend who was lamenting about having to buy new dress shoes.  I told him to google a cobbler and get new soles put on the ones he was wearing.   The guy was only 0.5 miles from his house.   I also had to show him how to polish his shoes.  his shoes look like new and are now on their second resoling.   

[Pettifogger]

I haven't seen a shoe repair shop in over 20 years.  Kinda hard to resole a Nike.

[Slamfire]

Young folk's,,,,,,ha,,,,,it don't pay 60,000 a yr.plus .

[pony express]

Got one right on the town square where I work, he'll re-sole or make you a whole new pair. I've had him put a few new heels on, but I always used the rubber heels, and none of my boots were ever expensive enough to be worth re-soling. Hard to justify in a $100 boot. I think the heels cost about 15 bucks, and since I have a bit of a limp, I wear out the left one pretty quick.

[Hargrave]

Hello .....

I have an old Frenchman here in town that is a true cobbler. If you still want the work done, I can ask him tomorrow how much.

Best part is, he has a young guy working there too that he is teaching. I just have to get through his strong French accent :-)

Jake

[Major 2]

is this a great place or what ?    I've had several offers ..... and I appreciate your PM & posts...

truth is ... these are Wolverine Lacers  uppers are similar to these but original had rubber Virbam sole ( which decomposed and rotted )
and are darker brown leather...they cost about $125, 20 odd years ago....

I have seen late 19th. century boots, that had the look....and because the sole literately rotted and crumbled away ..
I thought I'd restore them, and use them as crash abouts and save my $$$ Cavalry boots the wear & tear of wet range days .
( like last weekend 2" of standing water many places )

To me, $ 30 or so spent to re sole & heel in leather was simple enough in that I did the work to prep the under sole
and buffed away all remains of the old Virbam sole.

I certainly don't begrudge a craftsman (cobbler) his due, but at some point ($$$) this project becomes a "penny wise pound foolish" venture. 

So between that and the fact we have truly become a throwaway society....it is no wonder Shoe Repair has gone the way of the Dodo. 

[GunClick Rick]

Maybe that's why they won't repair them,you stepped in dodo baaa haaa haaaa

[Massive]

Most big cities still have leather shoe repair, because that is what the business guys wear.  I haven't bought any since I retired, but it was no problem.  But even back in the 90s it was 60 bucks.

As with holsters there are lots of hobbyists.  The Cordwayners society is one forum that they hang out on.

[dwight55]

I took my "new to me" dress boots into our local cobbler, yesterday.  He had just gotten out of the hospital, . . . but Mr. Martin still had that smile that has endeared him to several generations and countless thousands of people.

I marveled yesterday at his patience with a lady customer who got all confused in trying to make her payment.  His patience with her was far beyond most folks I know, . . .

As she walked out, she commented that she knew a lot more about shoes than she did money, . . . and he and I locked eyes smiling in agreement.

Craftsmen are few and far between these days, . . . mostly as one commenter said above, . . . it don't pay $60,000 or more, . . . but he left out the other thing, . . . craftsmen are expected to work, . . . something a large portion of young people only see in the W section of the dictionary.

May God bless,
Dwight

[Slowhand Bob]

When goes into these new fangled hair salons it does no good to ell them how you want it cut, they gonna do it how they think it should be done anyways!  I can not convince them that there are a few 70 year old guys who are willing to accept hair loss and do not want to grow a swoop....

[GunClick Rick]

Yea! Try gettin a flat top with fenders,or a nice high and tight! They look at you like

[Graveyard Jack]

Craftsmen are few and far between these days, . . . mostly as one commenter said above, . . . it don't pay $60,000 or more, . . .

I think it has less to do with the profession than the types of shoes that most people wear. Firstly, 99% of people will never own anything but flip-flops and tennis shoes. Or some other form of disposable synthetic crap. Secondly, people don't dress as nicely as they used to. Men don't put on a shirt and tie for dinner, which would also call for the kinds of leather dress shoes that can be rebuilt, which would facilitate the need for cobblers. Even a lot of dress shoes have glued on rubber soles and are disposable. A good pair of rebuildable leather dress shoes will cost you at least $200 (usually more) and most people aren't willing to spend that much. Even if they do last a lifetime if properly cared for. Even those of us who do buy them (11prs and counting), most of mine are Allen Edmonds and if I have a problem with them, I'll send them back to AE. Which doesn't do the local cobbler any good, if there even is one.

Same for boots. A lot of boots these days are not rebuildable. Even if they are, it's not worth the expense. Although there are probably  more good quality, rebuildable boots on the market than there are shoes. Relatively speaking, anyway.