The next generation of cobblers are focused on sneakers

https://www.gearpatrol.com/style/shoes-boots/a33865147/goods-and-services-sneakers/

by rmason • 5 years ago

62 56 5 years ago

kenjackson• 5 years ago

The title for this confused me. I read half the article expecting it to be about why advances in boots made it so the next generation of cobblers wouldn't repair them. A better title/summary, IMO is "The next generation of shoe cobblers are focused on sneakers".

routerl2• 5 years ago

i.e. "Cobblers repair shoes of all kinds", which sounds an awful lot like a tautology.

But it's actually a good point. As a practical minded consumer of clothes (read: unfashionable), this article did make me wonder why I've gotten so used to buying new shoes when my old ones wear out, instead of taking them to a cobbler.

I suspect the answer is that I can probably order a new pair for less cost than I could repair an old one, but I actually haven't checked the truth of this hypothesis in over a decade.

lotsofpulp• 5 years ago

I am under the assumption only dress shoes or similar can be repaired. I cannot imagine it is possible to repair a pair of running shoes or sneakers.

As a side note, I would change careers if I had to wear dress shoes so much that they got to the state of needing to be repaired.

dang2• 5 years ago

Ok, we'll use your title above. Thanks!

I also took the 'shoe' out of 'shoe cobblers' - isn't that like saying 'clothes tailor'?

djbebs• 5 years ago

Maybe put it back? As a non-nativer speaker when I read cobblers the first thing I think of cobbled roads and the people who make/maintain them.

With the Shoe Cobblers it makes it clear it's talking about shoe manufacturers.

cperciva• 5 years ago

The word "shoe" does help to distinguish it from the cobblers which are eaten for dessert. ;-)

biggieshellz• 5 years ago

Also, cobblers can repair modern hiking boots with cemented (not welted) construction. https://www.davepagecobbler.com/ resoled my wife's Asolo boots, replacing an EVA midsole that had crumbled, for well under the cost of a new pair.

pvarangot• 5 years ago

I got a pair of Asolos with cemented EVA midsoles repaired in Bariloche too, at the place where I bought them. The trick is finding an adhesive that won't react with the plastics/leather and that's strong enough. The shop told me that the cobbler they used got in contact with Asolo before doing his own tests and they helped him find the best adhesive he could source locally.

They broke after something like 1600kms. They went for over 1000kms more after that and I just stopped using them because I didn't pack them when I moved.

The repairability of shoes where aestetics don't matter as much is overstated. For a nice pair of dress shoes with a leather upper the stitch down construction lets you keep the creases and everything at the same place when you repair. On a hiking boot that doesn't matter as much.

chrisweekly3• 5 years ago

My LLBean Cresta hiking boots will probably last me another decade before I swap em out for free for a new pair. Can't think of many reasons I'd ever need a cobbler for my hiking boots.

Aloha3• 5 years ago

"The next generation of cobblers isn't just repairing boots" is a better title.

mc32• 5 years ago

So, since it's become more fashionable to make things recyclable and re-usable, why not mandate that makers of athletic footwear make them so that they can be repaired -at least swap in new soles. Else they get taxed with an enviro-impact fee.

The soles tend to be the first things to go, mesh uppers also wear out. But it would be neat if they were resolable with ease and not have to, erm, shoehorn a solution.

wrnr• 5 years ago

What if X is more reusable than Y but Y is the thing that is on the books. Now you have to lobby the government. Fun. Also, it's very hard for a bureaucrat or anyone else to make a judgement on what is going to be the most efficient what to organise the blue economy. Every day people invent new things, my understanding is that recycling and re-ellasticing bio-polymer is there way to go, but time will tell.

selykg• 5 years ago

There are some great YouTube channels that I love watching around repairing boots and shoes. If anyone cares:

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCVYlC0HmT9eZI3ZrFy_xthQ

https://www.youtube.com/c/BedosLeatherworksLLC

mauvehaus• 5 years ago

I'm surprised to hear how bad a decline in shoe repair shops there's been. Shoes are one of the last consumer goods you can actually get repaired.

There's shoes, sewing machines, vacuum cleaners, watches/clocks, firearms (if you consider them a consumer good) and ... what else?

Phone screens and batteries, I guess, if you don't just upgrade early instead of repairing it.

White goods, in theory, but the last 7 years I've had two landlords each replace a washer, dryer, and dishwasher that were beyond economical repair. I actually replaced the drum rollers and axles on the second dryer, but it was part of a stacked set, and when the washer died, the only option was to replace both.

Garments occasionally go to the tailor, but how many people truly get anything repaired vs altered to fit?

Am I missing anything here? I'm not including cars, as I don't know that I can call them a consumer good.

I suppose living in a city warps your perspective on the availability of shoe repair. I had work done at two separate shops in the Boston area and could probably find three or four more without much looking. That seems pretty prevalent to me, but I guess it probably isn't relative to the days before business casual was invented.

handrous6• 5 years ago

I'm surprised to hear how bad a decline in shoe repair shops there's been. Shoes are one of the last consumer goods you can actually get repaired.

I'm legitimately worried that by the time any of my leather shoes & boots need re-soling (another couple years, probably) cobblers will be too rare and expensive to justify re-soling for anything but really high-end shoes (say, $500+, which are out of my league; I don't like wearing things that'd make me very sad if they got damaged).

morsch• 5 years ago

Around here, there seems to be at least one small business in every city that maintains and repairs super automatic espresso machines.

It's definetly possible to get white goods repaired, and as with many things it's probably surprisingly economical to do it -- how else would the repair shops survive -- but you'd have to look at statistics. Now I feel a little bad scrapping our broken washing machine.

Computers still get repaired, though with laptops it's less easy I guess. Printers, too. If you count software-only repairs (and why not), those are pretty frequent.

Furniture and upholstery gets restored, though from what I know this is expensive enough that you'd only do it to very high quality stuff, not an Ikea cupboard that didn't survive moving. Or maybe you would? Ikea stuff is cheap but it ain't free.

Still not a long list, but it does get longer the more time you think about it.

onemoresoop2• 5 years ago

The problem is see with repairing sneakers is that the quality of the sneakers vs long lasting shoes is very different. When it comes to sneakers I extend their life a bit with shoe goo when a certain part of the sole (outer heel for me) wears out too fast but the rest of the shoe is still in good condition. My horrible pattern of walking wears out sneakers's heels in about 2-3 months and shoe goo extends their life a bit more beyond that, but after less than a year most sneakers turn mushy, stinky, and generally unpleasant so I wouldn't want to fix them beyond that point.

When it comes to classic shoes, I'm wearing a pair of shoes that I've had for 6 years. They are still in great shape though I still have to take them to a cobbler once a year for a heel replacement. They still have plenty of life in them so a 10-15 yearly update is well worth it.

handrous6• 5 years ago

Do really, really nice sneakers last a lot longer than the $40-60 pairs I'd wear, back when I wore sneakers a lot? Even with fairly careful wear, mine would look so shitty I wouldn't want to re-sole them, by at most a year, and often by the 6 month mark they'd be looking iffy. I can't imagine a pair surviving with the body of the shoe still in good-enough shape that they'd be worth re-soling by the time the sole was worn enough to warrant that (some shoe goo to extend lifetime of a well-worn pair, on the other hand, makes sense).

Are people doing this with Danners or something? Rancourt & Company court shoes? Or do $xxx+ Nikes really hold up that well?

onemoresoop2• 5 years ago

I have no idea but to me a pair of Converse should last more than 3 months and that's why I shoe goo mine to last 6 months. But I know people whose shoes age much better than mine, it's probably got to do with our walking pattern.

65• 5 years ago

It depends on the shoe. Nike shoes have surprisingly low quality materials and their higher end shoes will not last as long as high quality shoe makers like New Balance or Adidas.

The high end fashion shoes will last a lot longer. I used to own a few pairs of Y-3 sneakers and they were extremely high quality.

It also depends on the materials. A knit running shoe like an Adidas Ultra Boost is $180, but those are going to last a few months to a year with daily use. A $60 pair of Saucony Jazz Originals will last longer (based on my own experience) than the Ultra Boost because the rubber outsole is thicker, and there's a nice taper to prevent heel drag. Saucony Jazz's also have a thicker upper material. The upper is maybe not as soft/comfortable as Ultra Boosts, but thicker nonetheless.

fmajid• 5 years ago

Sneakers are designed to be disposable. Repairing them seems like a fool’s errand, at best you’d end up with a Ship of Theseus.

cwkoss• 5 years ago

Shoe of Theseus would be an awesome brand name for highly reparable shoes.

Falling3• 5 years ago

at best you’d end up with a Ship of Theseus

As long as it doesn't cause an existential crisis for the shoe, that doesn't sound like a downside.

h0l0cube2• 5 years ago

My prediction for all the inner-city commercial property that's becoming vacant due to a post-pandemic shift to WFH, is that it will be reclaimed by resurgent cottage industry

monkeybutton• 5 years ago

I doubt it. Where I live there are swaths of commercial real estate left vacant before the pandemic. Apparently the same few property brokers are buying up all property, raising commercial rents a ton, and just sitting on it. They don't even care if they have tenets because speculation is raising the values so much they still come out ahead.

danenania• 5 years ago

If underlying demand doesn't recover (seems unlikely it will reach pre-Covid levels again for many years), won't this still lead to a collapse eventually?

rsj_hn• 5 years ago

That would be sustainable in a gentrifying or high income area, as bespoke products are massively expensive. I've been purchasing custom made shoes for many years now, and it's not unusual to spend $500-1500 even for medium level quality (not peak quality, like Berlutti shoes[1]).

The stubborn fact is that economies of scale are a real thing, and so there is a limited market for paying bespoke prices for every day objects like shoes.

[1] https://www.berluti.com/en-us/shoes/?viewtype=grid-view-edit...

takk309• 5 years ago

The only shoes I have ever owned that could be repaired and be cost effective to do so have been climbing shoes. I have had one pair resoled three times. I wish it were worth while to repair other shoes but alas, that's the world we live in.

Another thing that I wish were more commonly repaired are the palms on my hockey gloves. I tend to wear through the left palm before the right. I have a collection of nice right hands and junk left hands. I have been keeping them in hopes of learning to do it my self.

eggsmediumrare• 5 years ago

I just wear my hockey gloves until the palms are completely gone. More money to spend on unnecessary sticks :|

ZeroGravitas• 5 years ago

If you were intrigued by this article there's some YouTube channels dedicated to the restoration of old sneakers which are fascinating and strangely soothing to watch.

The next generation of cobblers are focused on sneakers

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