6 ms·

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 repa

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".

routerl 5y 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 5y 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.
  - Aloha 5y ago
    Nice dress cowboy boots make better and more comfortable dress shoes than dress shoes. You might not like the stylistic statement, but they're actually shoes you can spend 18 hours on your feet.
    - handrous 5y ago
      You can find something comfortable in nearly any boot style, since they're almost all based on designs that were actually intended to be used for long stretches of physical activity. Work-boot styles (obviously), equestrian styles (western, Chelsea, jodhpur), military (chukkas, "jump boots"), and hunting (which even includes most "dress" styles, which are typically based on rural British hunting/stalking boots) all have practical-wear lineage, and usually are little removed from the originals, if at all.
    - davidw 5y ago
      Yep. "Roper" boots are especially good if you want something a bit less 'cowboy'. For instance: https://www.tecovas.com/products/the-earl?variant=31686410638 https://www.tecovas.com/products/the-earl?variant=3168641063... (I can't speak to that brand, I don't own any Tecovas). For day to day, I got myself some of these, because they can be resoled and repaired and are tough: https://www.redwingshoes.com/work/mens/soft-toe/SuperSole-01105.html https://www.redwingshoes.com/work/mens/soft-toe/SuperSole-01... - they are not very stylish, but then again neither am I so we're even.
      - Aloha 5y ago
        I have a bunch of pairs of Tony Llama, Justin and Nacona boots, realistically, Tecovas offers you more options if you dont want square toe boots - the industry seems to have decided everyone wants square toe boots. I'm lucky and I'm in Fort Worth, there is a Justin Boot Outlet, which has factory seconds for.. well cheap, and I've bought far too many boots there. But I find them more comfortable than tennis shoes, other than perhaps I look a bit silly wearing them with shorts. For someone choosing any fine leather shoe or boot, some pro tips: * Chose Calf Leather - its easier to maintain, and care for and has a longer life than virtually any other material. * If you dont need fancy, oil skin boots are a good option, all you need to do is clean them with a finger brush and saddle soap, then re-oil them periodically. You can oil them with either Mink Oil or Hubbards Shoe Grease. * Learn how to polish shoes - use a color matching cream polish, then let that dry, then use a paste (like Kiwi) polish on top, buff that to a gloss. There are good youtube videos that can show you how to do this too. For that shaft of these boot, just use a leather moisturizing cream. These are good options for the boot newbie. https://www.tonylama.com/en-US/Product/Details?stylenumber=TL3014 https://www.tonylama.com/en-US/Product/Details?stylenumber=T... https://www.tonylama.com/en-US/Product/Details?stylenumber=TL3008 https://www.tonylama.com/en-US/Product/Details?stylenumber=T... https://www.tonylama.com/en-US/Product/Details?stylenumber=7900 https://www.tonylama.com/en-US/Product/Details?stylenumber=7...
  - routerl 5y ago
    I'm on the same page. When my fancy dress shoes need repair or replacing, even I can tell what work it needs, though I can't perform that work myself. It needs a new sole, or new stitching, or wtv. With sneakers, I'm utterly trained to think "well now it's trash" rather than "could this be repaired". And, thanks to this article, I'm gonna try to have the "how do I repair it" thought first, instead of the "how do I replace it" thought. Which is weird, because this is absolutely already how I think about laptops and cellphones.
  - gambiting 5y ago
    So actually I had a pair of "unrepairable" sneakers repaired, a £150 pair of Ecco shoes where the sole completely wore out, I kept asking around if they could be possibly repaired and found a cobbler in Edinburgh that replaced the sole for £50 - it was perfect fit, they somehow gave them a brand new lease of life. But of course the main problem here is that you could easily buy a new pair of shoes for £50.....
    - em-bee 5y ago
      £50 for a new sole seems expensive. unless you were looking for some special material or like sneakers they were difficult to fix. either way, if £50 doubles the live of a £150 pair of shoes, i think it is still worth it. you need to consider the new pair you could get for £50 may not be what you want to wear, because otherwise why did you spend £150 to begin with?
  - handrous 5y ago
    The pictures in the story look more like fashion-oriented mods to shoes, than straight repairs or a traditional re-soling. AFAIK you'd pretty much have to rip off the whole bottom half of a typical glue-construction tennis shoe to replace the sole, so you're practically rebuilding the thing, at that point. Look at the wide sewn-on strips around the bottom of the example shoes, just above the welt—ten-to-one that's covering up (or repairing) where the damage was done, removing the original sole.
  - mikestew 5y ago
    Resoling running shoes has been around since I started paying attention to such things in the early 80s. (I'm more of a Shoo Goo guy myself.) One example: https://nushoe.com/running-shoes-repair.html https://nushoe.com/running-shoes-repair.html
  - dripton 5y ago
    I don't buy expensive shoes, so it seems obvious to me that it's cheaper to replace than repair, so I do that. But I do have one expensive ($150 on sale, $300 retail) pair of winter bike boots, and the soles gradually detached from the uppers, letting water seep in. I took them to my local shoe repair place and they made them good as new for $25. Total bargain. So, it's worth a shot.
dang 5y 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 5y 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.
  - dang 5y ago
    I have enormous respect for the non-native English speakers on HN and their/your incredible mastery of the English language - it's truly astonishing how good nearly everyone is. But in this case my inner grad student needs to insist on the English meaning of the word. The etymologies do trace "cobblestone" and "cobbler" to a common root (though not definitively), but there doesn't seem to be any meaning of "cobbler" that refers to cobblestone makers. I don't know what the latter would be called - maybe cobblestone masons?
  - bagacrap 5y ago
    and now you've learned something new about the language
- cperciva 5y ago
  The word "shoe" does help to distinguish it from the cobblers which are eaten for dessert. ;-)
biggieshellz 5y ago
Also, cobblers can repair modern hiking boots with cemented (not welted) construction. https://www.davepagecobbler.com/ 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 5y 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.
- chrisweekly 5y 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.
  - ailun 5y ago
    Seriously? You’re going to use them for a decade plus then abuse the return policy for a new pair? Not cool.
    - InvertedRhodium 5y ago
      It's hardly abuse - their return policy was a "lifetime warranty", if they weren't willing to honour it after 10 years then they shouldn't have advertised it as such. Looks like GP might be outta luck though - LL Bean scrapped their lifetime warranty back in 2018 [1]. Not sure how retroactive limitations on warranty works in the US. 1: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/09/584493046/l-l-bean-scraps-legendary-lifetime-return-policy https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/09/584493046...

routerl 5y 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 5y 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.
- Aloha 5y ago
  Nice dress cowboy boots make better and more comfortable dress shoes than dress shoes. You might not like the stylistic statement, but they're actually shoes you can spend 18 hours on your feet.
  - handrous 5y ago
    You can find something comfortable in nearly any boot style, since they're almost all based on designs that were actually intended to be used for long stretches of physical activity. Work-boot styles (obviously), equestrian styles (western, Chelsea, jodhpur), military (chukkas, "jump boots"), and hunting (which even includes most "dress" styles, which are typically based on rural British hunting/stalking boots) all have practical-wear lineage, and usually are little removed from the originals, if at all.
  - davidw 5y ago
    Yep. "Roper" boots are especially good if you want something a bit less 'cowboy'. For instance: https://www.tecovas.com/products/the-earl?variant=31686410638 https://www.tecovas.com/products/the-earl?variant=3168641063... (I can't speak to that brand, I don't own any Tecovas). For day to day, I got myself some of these, because they can be resoled and repaired and are tough: https://www.redwingshoes.com/work/mens/soft-toe/SuperSole-01105.html https://www.redwingshoes.com/work/mens/soft-toe/SuperSole-01... - they are not very stylish, but then again neither am I so we're even.
    - Aloha 5y ago
      I have a bunch of pairs of Tony Llama, Justin and Nacona boots, realistically, Tecovas offers you more options if you dont want square toe boots - the industry seems to have decided everyone wants square toe boots. I'm lucky and I'm in Fort Worth, there is a Justin Boot Outlet, which has factory seconds for.. well cheap, and I've bought far too many boots there. But I find them more comfortable than tennis shoes, other than perhaps I look a bit silly wearing them with shorts. For someone choosing any fine leather shoe or boot, some pro tips: * Chose Calf Leather - its easier to maintain, and care for and has a longer life than virtually any other material. * If you dont need fancy, oil skin boots are a good option, all you need to do is clean them with a finger brush and saddle soap, then re-oil them periodically. You can oil them with either Mink Oil or Hubbards Shoe Grease. * Learn how to polish shoes - use a color matching cream polish, then let that dry, then use a paste (like Kiwi) polish on top, buff that to a gloss. There are good youtube videos that can show you how to do this too. For that shaft of these boot, just use a leather moisturizing cream. These are good options for the boot newbie. https://www.tonylama.com/en-US/Product/Details?stylenumber=TL3014 https://www.tonylama.com/en-US/Product/Details?stylenumber=T... https://www.tonylama.com/en-US/Product/Details?stylenumber=TL3008 https://www.tonylama.com/en-US/Product/Details?stylenumber=T... https://www.tonylama.com/en-US/Product/Details?stylenumber=7900 https://www.tonylama.com/en-US/Product/Details?stylenumber=7...
- routerl 5y ago
  I'm on the same page. When my fancy dress shoes need repair or replacing, even I can tell what work it needs, though I can't perform that work myself. It needs a new sole, or new stitching, or wtv. With sneakers, I'm utterly trained to think "well now it's trash" rather than "could this be repaired". And, thanks to this article, I'm gonna try to have the "how do I repair it" thought first, instead of the "how do I replace it" thought. Which is weird, because this is absolutely already how I think about laptops and cellphones.
- gambiting 5y ago
  So actually I had a pair of "unrepairable" sneakers repaired, a £150 pair of Ecco shoes where the sole completely wore out, I kept asking around if they could be possibly repaired and found a cobbler in Edinburgh that replaced the sole for £50 - it was perfect fit, they somehow gave them a brand new lease of life. But of course the main problem here is that you could easily buy a new pair of shoes for £50.....
  - em-bee 5y ago
    £50 for a new sole seems expensive. unless you were looking for some special material or like sneakers they were difficult to fix. either way, if £50 doubles the live of a £150 pair of shoes, i think it is still worth it. you need to consider the new pair you could get for £50 may not be what you want to wear, because otherwise why did you spend £150 to begin with?
- handrous 5y ago
  The pictures in the story look more like fashion-oriented mods to shoes, than straight repairs or a traditional re-soling. AFAIK you'd pretty much have to rip off the whole bottom half of a typical glue-construction tennis shoe to replace the sole, so you're practically rebuilding the thing, at that point. Look at the wide sewn-on strips around the bottom of the example shoes, just above the welt—ten-to-one that's covering up (or repairing) where the damage was done, removing the original sole.
- mikestew 5y ago
  Resoling running shoes has been around since I started paying attention to such things in the early 80s. (I'm more of a Shoo Goo guy myself.) One example: https://nushoe.com/running-shoes-repair.html https://nushoe.com/running-shoes-repair.html
- dripton 5y ago
  I don't buy expensive shoes, so it seems obvious to me that it's cheaper to replace than repair, so I do that. But I do have one expensive ($150 on sale, $300 retail) pair of winter bike boots, and the soles gradually detached from the uppers, letting water seep in. I took them to my local shoe repair place and they made them good as new for $25. Total bargain. So, it's worth a shot.

dang 5y 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 5y 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.
- dang 5y ago
  I have enormous respect for the non-native English speakers on HN and their/your incredible mastery of the English language - it's truly astonishing how good nearly everyone is. But in this case my inner grad student needs to insist on the English meaning of the word. The etymologies do trace "cobblestone" and "cobbler" to a common root (though not definitively), but there doesn't seem to be any meaning of "cobbler" that refers to cobblestone makers. I don't know what the latter would be called - maybe cobblestone masons?
- bagacrap 5y ago
  and now you've learned something new about the language
cperciva 5y ago
The word "shoe" does help to distinguish it from the cobblers which are eaten for dessert. ;-)

biggieshellz 5y ago

Also, cobblers can repair modern hiking boots with cemented (not welted) construction. https://www.davepagecobbler.com/ 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 5y 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.
chrisweekly 5y 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.
- ailun 5y ago
  Seriously? You’re going to use them for a decade plus then abuse the return policy for a new pair? Not cool.
  - InvertedRhodium 5y ago
    It's hardly abuse - their return policy was a "lifetime warranty", if they weren't willing to honour it after 10 years then they shouldn't have advertised it as such. Looks like GP might be outta luck though - LL Bean scrapped their lifetime warranty back in 2018 [1]. Not sure how retroactive limitations on warranty works in the US. 1: https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/09/584493046/l-l-bean-scraps-legendary-lifetime-return-policy https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/09/584493046...