Word: shoes
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...literally dusted off a decade-old pair of ragged black leather boots sitting in her closet and visited a shoe-repair shop for the first time in her life. For a fashion-conscious woman, the thought of recycling clothing hurt her pride a bit. "I walked in with my tail between my legs," she says. "It was something, initially, I was not proud of." Then she saw the price: $16. And the work: the boots looked as good as new. "I walked out of there going, 'O.K., all right,'" Thorsen says. She proudly wore her healed heels...
...consumers cut back on big-ticket purchases this year, many fix-it folks are busier than ever. Whyspend money on new shoes, suits or SUVs when it's so much cheaper to repair the ones you already have? Around the country, cobblers, tailors, car mechanics and bike, vacuum, watch and television repairers are reporting strong revenues during the recession. Jim McFarland, a third-generation shoe repairman, who owns McFarland's Shoe Repair in Lakeland, has fought many anxiety bouts in his 23 years running the shop. "I've spent nights pacing my floor at 2, 3 in the morning, wondering...
...McFarland says his year-over-year revenues rose 28% in December and 35% in January. "I'd love to see a 50% jump in February," he says. As the historian for the Shoe Service Institute of America, the cobbler trade group, McFarland tracks local media stories on shoe-repair performance and talks to hundreds of shop owners throughout the country. He says cobblers are reporting increases in the range of 25% to 40% during the fourth quarter of 2008 and early '09. (See a gallery of Olympic shoe designs...
...While the recession has helped all types of repair professions, cobblers seem to be enjoying their luck more than others. Shoe repair is a dying industry. During the Great Depression, there were some 130,000 shops in the country. Now there are only 7,000. Graying, middle-aged repairers are the Young Turks; there's a clear shortage of 20- and 30-something cobblers in today's shops. "We have a chance to reintroduce our industry," says Randy Lipson, who runs four shoe-repair shops in St. Louis, Mo. The shoes are falling off the shelves in Lipson's shops...
...McFarland, the Florida shoe repairman, thinks a two-year downturn would give the industry a "shot in the arm" that could last 10 to 15 years. But even McFarland is quick to temper his excitement. He too realizes that what's good for the cobbler might be bad for the souls of his countrymen. "The more people we get," he says, "the worse it is out there...