Word: shopped
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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...
...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, How am I going to get through this?" says McFarland, who teethed on leather as a baby. "Now I sleep the whole night through," he says. "I've never seen it like this - it's wonderful...
...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...
...past, one of the biggest challenges tradespeople faced was a psychological barrier that kept consumers out of the repair shop: I will not stoop so low as to squeeze more life out of these musty shoes or this old dress. That feeling still exists. An Indianapolis publishing executive named Pat, who just took four suit jackets in for restoration, asked that her last name not be printed because "it's nobody's business that I'm recycling clothing." But the economic realities eventually prevail. Pat was looking to extend her wardrobe when she chose between new and used. "Should...
...tailors who also make custom clothing in their shops, the alteration game is a savior. Joyce Hittesdorf, president of the Association of Sewing and Design Professionals, who runs her own small business in Carmel, Ind., has picked up about eight new clients over the past month. "They were all looking to salvage what they had," she says. "Alterations were the secondary part of our business. Now they're more primary." At Imparali Custom Tailors in New York City, new custom-suit sales fell about 20% in 2008, while revenues from fix-up jobs jumped 30%. Matt Harpalani, the shop...