The Next Generation of Shoe Cobblers Isn’t Repairing Boots
27th November 2021
(Is there such a thing as a non-shoe cobbler?)
Shoe repair isn’t exactly a hobby one can simply fall into. Often, it’s the family business, passed on to the next generation. The store front, along with the machines, the customers, the skills are all transferred. “It’s wild to think that you used to be able to go to a trade school and take a course on shoe repair with a professor and a textbook,” Fortune says. “That’s not a thing anymore — you’re totally on your own.”
Getting into shoe repair is opaque, but Fortune had an in. His background in the fashion industry certainly gave him cursory knowledge of the trade, but it was a childhood friend whose family ran a shoe repair shop that really gave him a leg up. The shoe repair shop was in need of a refresh and Fortune pitched in to help. That’s where the shoe repairing journey started.