When I was young, I dropped many shoes off at a cobbler in downtown Knoxville. Great sign out front, an oxford shoe silhouette, with lights. Nice old man greeted you, with stained hands, and stacks and stacks of shoes ready to be picked up. Some were caked with dust, while others were obviously just repaired. Cost for resoling was affordable and resoling was an obviously prudent thing to do.

Yesterday, I stopped at a highly rated shoe repair shop in Richmond. 113 years old? Sounds like the shop I loved in the hometown. Turns out that the original downtown shop moved to the west end in the county when the original owners sold the business back in 2018. Still, why not check it out?

For a woman's heel replacements, those little plastic things on the end of the stout stacked heel, $30. Sigh. How 'bout soles for these casual oxfords?

The man asks "do you want full or half soles?" Not a good sign, I thought. He failed to understand, or didn't follow my gestures to replace the entire sole and heel. Or, maybe full soles are a lot, and he is preparing me for a lower cost option? He goes to the back, and gets a tape measure. 14 inches of sole leather, he measures. Back to the back. He returns with an estimate of $150.

Holy smokes! These are nice shoes, made in the USA, a classic brand, but $150?

Times like these make you look for alternatives. Would the original maker rebuild these? Are there new shoes like these on eBay for less? What makes the most sense? $150 gets you cheap junk from overseas today (I've looked). So, maybe a rebuild is in order at the original manufacturer in the USA. I'll have to see, though. Shipping both ways to Wisconsin ($46), rebuild cost ($175), and we are right at the point of replacing these with new factory seconds.

How can this country remain the country I love, with costs like this?

Unfortunately, cost has gone up for everything. The shop owners pay more for supplies and overhead. We accept things like insurance and tax increases because we have to. In service and repair we complain, I have to remind myself that everything costs more now.

I didn't realize just how much skill and labor went into a resole job until I watched a few Trenton & Heath videos. Here's one of an Allen Edmonds resole job...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oe9qeIIE3Ds&t=430s

quote:

Originally posted by rizzle:

Unfortunately, cost has gone up for everything. The shop owners pay more for supplies and overhead. We accept things like insurance and tax increases because we have to. In service and repair we complain, I have to remind myself that everything costs more now.

Rent has become unaffordable for many small businesses.

Loved the video, rizzle. That video creator has a business of recrafting, and depending on what you want, you can spend over $250. Looks like the expense quoted by the local cobbler is in line with the basic repair costs of these major shops.

Shoes have become disposable items like TV's

Both no longer worth the cost to repair.

I've got a pair of boots that needs a re-heel [rubber pads on the heels worn down] and some stitching repaired.
The OP makes me think it'd possibly be more cost effective to just buy a new pair [they were maybe $240 new].

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:

When I was young, I dropped many shoes off at a cobbler in downtown Knoxville. Great sign out front, an oxford shoe silhouette, with lights. Nice old man greeted you, with stained hands, and stacks and stacks of shoes ready to be picked up. Some were caked with dust, while others were obviously just repaired. Cost for resoling was affordable and resoling was an obviously prudent thing to do.

That takes me back a few years. I remember, as a kid, shoe repair shops that had a small booth, waist-high partition, with a bench to sit on while I waited for shoes to be re-soled and / or new heels.

I would go to the library first, so that I would have a book to read while I was waiting for my shoes.

quote:

Originally posted by 4MUL8R:... 14 inches of sole leather, he measures. Back to the back. He returns with an estimate of $150. ...

What would it have cost "when you were young", if those would have been your father's shoes, you were having repaired?

I wonder how many shoe repair places even exist today. A large percentage of footwear isn’t repairable except with a dab or so of Shoe Goo, so the demand has fallen off as well.

It’s a basic economic principle that low demand results in low prices, but to the extent that’s true, it also depends on high supply. When demand goes down, that often results in even lower supply and then prices increase: “Oh, you want a load for your 450 Rigby? Yeah, we’ll make it for you, but it’s not going to be $1.35 a round.”

You can find one or two in a small town. The cobbler also advised me on the type of shoe to buy. The best are handmade of course, the kind Prince William wears.
My university which was 6 thousand men at the time had a busy cobbler. Kids these days wear tennis shoes.

I just sent back my custom Whites boots for resoling. I'm expecting around $250 or so. Of course, they are like $6-700 new.

Johnston Murphy refused to resole and heel a pair of their wingtips i bought from a J&M store circa 1988. Found a guy a few blocks from the Capitol in Lansing who did half soles and heels for about $130. Had a pair of Bostonians made in Portugal done same treatment for about same money.

The skills required are a dying art. Demand exceeds supply. My labor rate is $100 an hour. Just did a job for a heating and cooling guy who gets $120.

A decent pair of shoes that can be refurbished will run you about $350. If you don't mind buying pre-worn one, you can find lots of nice ones on Posh for less than $100.

I tend to buy quality when I can find it. But if you want decent stuff or to have decent stuff repaired, you are going to pay for it.

Allen Edmonds offers this service, from $50 for a refinishing the tops to $175 for the top of the line everything service.

Includes:

Replacing heels, including both the toplifts and heel bases
Replacing the outsoles, leather welts and cork in-lays*
Refinishing and hand polishing the uppers
Replacing laces with a brand-new pair
Pair of cedar shoe trees to keep your footwear in top form
Flannel shoe bag for protection when traveling or storing your footwear
Tube of our speed polish to help you maintain the perfect shine

*Discontinued sole styles will be replaced with the most similar current design

https://www.allenedmonds.com/recrafting

Five decades ago I used to take worn-out work boot soles to a little mom-and-pop place. He would ask me if I wanted him to "save my sole." Depending on the amount of damage I would get either half or full soles. It greatly extended the life of what were then expensive boots.

I've used Nushoe for repairs in the past and have been pleased with their service and quality of repair -

https://nushoe.com/

Sadly the economics of shoe repair and resoles doesn’t make sense anymore except in very limited circumstances. I recall my dad doing it ( late 60’s/ early 70’s) when good dress shoes cost $50 and resoles was $10-15. Shoe design and construction has changed ( for better or for worse) making traditional repairs not an option.

About the only place I see shoe/ boot resole still somewhat common is at military bases

The quad cities used to have six shoe repair shops, now . . . None.
40 mile drive to a tiny town.

To a guy who should have retired 20 years ago.

If environmentalists really wanted to save the planet, they would pressure companies to make items they sell repairable. Or maybe even pressure lawmakers to pass laws requiring a certain degree of repairability. The reality is that some of the most radical “save the planet” and “climate change is going to kill us all” people are t willing to give up their quantity and variety of junk products to make the planet healthier. People today want quantity, not quality and it shows in terms of the lack of repairability of most things. In my dream world, $350 dress shoes would be the norm, and $100 dress shoes would start ceasing to exist. People would own 1 or 2 quality items instead of a closet full of junk, and people would get things repaired instead of filling up landfills.

No one I even know wears leather shoes anymore on a regular basis, they may do with dress shoes but who really dresses up anymore except on special occasions? Everything is casual/athletic now.

I wear leather oxford style shoes regularly but am an outlier for sure.