• Font Size    
E-mail

Close Window E-mail This Page

Shoe Repair Finds Footing In Down Economy

Required fields are marked with an asterisk(*)

The information you provide will be used only to send the requested e-mail and will not be used to send any other e-mail communications. Read more in our Privacy Policy

Send E-mail

   Print     Share +   
Feb 6, 2009 5:47 pm US/Mountain

Shoe Repair Finds Footing In Down Economy

Written for the Web by CBS4 Special Projects Producer Libby Smith

Reporting
Molly Hughes
DENVER (CBS4) ― In the current recession, cobblers have gone from cobbling together a living to booming business. Many shoe repair shops are seeing business double as more and more people look to fix their favorite shoes instead of buying new ones.

"I pay a lot of money for my shoes and I want to get the absolute max out of them," said Linda Donnely, a customer at Dardano's Comfort Footwear in Denver.

Shoe repair is an old industry. Dardano's has been repairing shoes since 1938, but in the last six months they've seen their business double.

"Yeah, we see a variety, from a 35 dollar pair of shoes to upwards of $1400 a pair," Joe Dardano told CBS4.

Most repairs focus on replacing soles and heels for a fraction of the cost of a new pair of shoes. But the cobblers at Dardano's are also seeing people take precautionary measures with their footwear. They're putting rubber overlays on brand new shoes. For a cost running less than $20, the rubber overlay will prevent the sole from wearing out in the first place.

"So this way they come back, we replace the rubber layer and they get another full wearing out of it. So they can actually have that done 5 - 6 times, so it adds a lot of value," Dardano added.

A total shoe refurbish ranges in price between $30 - $50, far less than the price of many new shoes.

In these tough times, the newly frugal are getting more miles out of their footwear, and they're giving new life to what had been a dying business. There has been so much growth in the industry that a new shoe repair school is opening in Denver. Rhine Cobbler School is hoping to train the next generation of cobblers.

(© MMIX CBS Television Stations, Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

Curious & Controversial News

You need the latest Flash player to view video content.
Click here to download.

Click here to bypass this detection if you already have the latest Flash Player.

Consumer

Top News Stories

© MMIX, CBS Television Stations Inc. All Rights Reserved.