Folio Weekly: Are cobbler shops a vestige of the past?
Charlie Atkinson: There are still a lot of shops around; there are lots of shops in Jacksonville. [But] quality repair shops are getting harder to find as the old-timers retire and there’re no young people taking their place, ’cause there’re a lot of cities around the country where shop guys reach retirement age and there’s nobody around to carry on the business. I’m blessed to have a really loyal customer base.
So there’s still a market for shoe repair?
Oh, there’s a market, there’s no doubt about it. But it’s a lot more than just shoes; it’s luggage repair, purse repair, belts, wallets, patches, snaps, rivets, zippers, all kinds of different things. We stay busy.
Do your customers skew toward a certain demographic?
In the last few years, the economy’s been struggling, and a lot of people have used shoe repairs for many years, but we’re starting to see a lot of new customers coming in — I call them the under-30 crowd — that maybe have never used shoe repair in the past, and they’ll read an article or watch an economics show and they’ve learned that shoe repair exists.
Is it cost-effective to have shoes repaired instead of buying a new pair?
I think it is. Obviously there’re choices to be made, if you’re buying a shoe for the same cost [that] you can get it repaired, which is not uncommon. The quality shoes and luggage and purses, they obviously cost more, so we see more products like that, but sometimes you’re better off buying a new pair, depending on what the repair is.
How have shoes changed throughout the years?
We’ve seen a lot of changes in the industry. In the old days, almost all the men’s dress shoes were leather soles and rubber heels, where today — and for quite a few years now — they’ve gone to a molding process where the sole’s made of all-rubber one-piece construction where the [tip] of the shoe is basically molded and attached to a one-piece rubber sole and heel, so that’s very strong in the market now.
What are the most common things you’re asked to do?
The most common jobs are heels for men and women. [Replacing] the high heels with the narrow tip, that’s the No. 1 thing we do for ladies’ shoes, but we also do a lot of soles on ladies’ shoes. We do what we call a protective sole, pro-sole for short, and that’s a thin rubber sole that’s bonded to a leather sole to keep the original sole from wearing out, as well as repelling water and adding comfort. Very common job. For men’s shoes, we do full soles, which is a complete rebuild job all the way through from heel to toe. We also do a lot of rip work, where we shorten handles on pocketbooks. Ladies will stop in and we’ll
take a measurement and shorten that strap, very common.
As a cobbler, what kinds of tools do you use?
We have a hammer that’s specifically designed for the shoe repair business, a lot of sharp knives, a lot of sharp scissors, an awl for sewing — we still do a lot of hand-sewing — and hasps. We use a lot of wax thread, nylon thread and heavy-duty sewing machines.
Is cobbling a difficult craft to learn?
It’s not a difficult craft to learn, but there’s a lot more to it than the average person would think. Learning the different materials, different cements and bonding procedures, and the total construction and the way things are put together. Recognizing the products, whether they’re vinyl, leather, polyurethane.
So it’s more than just gluing a heel to a shoe.
Some people think that when you put a heel or a sole on a shoe, you take the old one off and the new one is pre-sized, pre-formed and pre-fit. It’s not. It’s really an art. Everything we do, you cut down and shape back to the original shape of the shoe, so you have to be creative to get things looking just right. Nothing is pre-sized to just snap on.
Can you look at a shoe and tell if it’s good quality or not?
Oh, absolutely. I’ve been in the business so long that I can look at shoes without touching them and pretty much know the basic construction, what the material is, whether it’s real or imitation leather, or an exotic skin. There’s a lot of imitation leathers and imitation reptile skins on the market now.
Beyond leather, what’s a desirable material for shoes?
Vinyl has come a long way from when it first hit the market years ago. And now a lot of times you really have to look closely to know. Believe it or not, there’s good-quality vinyl and low-quality vinyl. The better-quality vinyls will hold up longer and work better for the product.
What can people do to prolong the life of their shoes?
General care of leather or vinyl or anything is important. Cleaning is important. It removes the buildup of dirt and other elements that dry out the material. It’s really important as well to condition. There are products out there that condition leather and replace the natural oils that over a period of time leave the leather. Once the leather loses its flexibility, it starts cracking. You see that in ball gloves, hunting boots, belts and regular shoes.
What’s the most unusual thing you’ve been asked to do?
This is not so much an odd thing as it was a challenging thing: I had a customer who [had] a regular pair of boots and wanted to add a sole to it to make it a platform, like six inches up. In order for us do that, we had to do it in layers. We don’t have one piece of material that’s six inches thick. That was pretty challenging.
How much time do you take repairing each pair of shoes?
That really varies. Some jobs only take about a minute or two, things that are very minor, like reattaching a strap or something like that. If you’re doing a pair of soles or heels, you’re gonna spend a good 30 minutes, depending on whether the sole was stitched or bonded.
What do you look for when you buy a pair of shoes for yourself?
Comfort. It’s very important. I’ve had customers [who are] very conscious of fashion and the latest styles that are out, and then as time goes on, they learn that comfort is the most important thing. My dad used to tell me, if your teeth are hurting, put on a tight pair
of shoes so your feet hurt and you’ll forget about your toothache. If your feet hurt, you hurt all over.
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