So far as I know, there is no formal ranking of cobblers in the US. It’s not a formal apprenticeship program, it’s on-the-job training. I frequently say “apprentice cobbler” to new customers, since it can be shorter than saying “I’m a new hire who is partly trained to do some shoe repairs, in addition to selling merchandise, handling customer complaints, and cleaning the place up when time allows”. Which is, more or less, the role of an apprentice in many trades.
The owners have taken some college level training in orthotics and prosthetics through the Feinberg School of Medicine at Northwestern University in Chicago, hence the occasional appearance of people with specialty shoe requirements and, well, artificial arms (apparently). Only those two, having completed such training, are permitted to do that work.
Lots of uppers, mostly (it’s that leatherworking background). A dozen or so loafers restitched, work boot uppers, a pair of cracked soles, and LOT of high heels and ladies boots. That is, in part, because so much of the work is ladies’ dress shoes and they were behind on them when I was hired, so it made sense to train me on those first. I haven’t yet been authorized to work on men’s heels, or women’s low heel casual shoes of similar construction. I can do workboot uppers but not soles or heels yet. Also have worked on purses, luggage, jackets, and belts. I’ve done zipper repair on boots and jackets. I can do rivets and such, but the biggest problem are prior employees who didn’t know/understand jack about it and completely messed up the parts organization for those items.
We have two located in Meijer’s stores, one in Merrillville and one in Mishawaka, Indiana. We also have a stand-alone storefront in Valparaiso.
Yes, that’s sort of the Meijer’s stores – except we don’t say “1 hour shoe repair” because, frankly, some things take longer than an hour. When people come in some items I can fix in 10-15 minutes, while they wait or shop. Others require overnight or even up to a couple weeks (the latter for when we have to order something, usually).
I won’t fix the heels on high heels while people wait – because I’m new I have to move slowly and think about what I’m doing, it’s not second nature like it is for some of the more experienced people. Having a customer looming over my shoulder while I do it is just not good. Also, sometimes I take a bit too much off with the sander, requiring me to re-do the heel tip. That’s not damaging the shoe itself, just the bit I’m replacing. I really don’t like having to do a re-do in front of a customer, though sometimes even are experts make a mistake and have to correct it. With my inexperience, having someone shifting from foot to foot saying “Hurry up! Hurry up!” is not conducive to good results.
One guy at the store, I’ll call him Mr. N, recently repaired 40 pairs of shoes/boots in one day. My output for the day was four pairs. That gives you an idea of the speed difference (also, Mr. N was only doing shoes – I was waiting on customers, keeping him organized so he’d do the pairs that had been there longest first, restocking shelves, etc.) Now, once I’ve got a pair done the customers can’t tell whether Mr. N or I’ve done the work, which is the idea, it just takes me a lot longer to get it done properly.
It does make me feel good when someone comes to pick up their shoes and pronounces them “perfect!” and I know I did the work.
Ah, dogs… a couple weeks ago we had no less than 5 separate people come in with dog damage. Surprisingly, the yorkies do more damage than the pit bulls. I think it’s because the yorkies work at it, gnawing away for hours if they can, whereas with the pits it usually they bite through something picking it up but don’t really chew methodically.
When people call on the phone we suggest they actually bring them in if it’s not too much trouble. Until we see it, it’s hard to say for sure. Often, even if we can’t make them perfect again we can make substantial improvements, enough so the shoe is usable again. If you look close you might see teeth marks, but at normal conversational distances maybe not so obvious.
But yeah, there’s a good chance they’re done.
Yep.
Also cheap shoes that could be repaired for a lot more money than the shoe was sold for originally. In that case, I tell them their options (I know many things that can be done, even if I can’t do them myself yet) and the price and let them decide. Sometimes, people with hard to fit feet who have a really comfortable pair of shoes will repair them even if it costs substantial money. Others don’t want to bother.
When they abandon hopeless cases we sometimes save them to use to train new people. That way, we practice on shoes nobody cares about instead of customer shoes until we are sufficiently proficient to do real repairs. The other means of training is to bring your own shoes in and work on them until you’re good enough to work for actual customers.
Sometimes we can fix zippers, sometimes we can’t, it depends on what’s wrong with them. We recently refunded the repair money to a lady whose boots we tried to fix three times – we completely replaced the zipper, only to have it fail again within 24-48 hours. We finally admitted we didn’t know what the heck was going on, but we simply couldn’t make a lasting repair, so, lady, here’s your money back.
Anyhow – often, we can fix a zipper without replacing it, which is much cheaper, quicker, and (usually) easier than a a replacement.
A replacement for a jacket zipper starts at $35 at our shop.
A lot of shops want nothing to do with zippers. They can be a pain in the backside.