This article by Ray Spitzenberger first appeared in Images for East Bernard Express, December 15, 2022.
The old English adage by Daniel Defoe modified by Americans, “If the shoe fits, wear it,” wasn’t really about shoes. So let me modify it further by saying, “If the shoe fits, wear it, but if it doesn’t fit, don’t wear it as it will ruin your feet.” As a young person, I learned that the hard way.
During World War II in the 1940s, you had to have government-issued ration stamps to buy shoes, as well as a bunch of other scarce items. Each family was limited to the number of shoes they could buy, and the new shoes available seemed to be of lower quality. Shoe repairmen, or cobblers, did a booming business during the War years.
If the shoe didn’t quite fit, you bought it anyway, because leather was so scarce. We bought shoes that didn’t fit right, and I ruined my feet. You could go to the cobbler in Old Dime Box, and he could stretch tight-fitting shoes, but not always enough to make them fully comfortable.
Some historians say that “cobblers” and “shoe repairmen” repaired your shoes, while “shoemakers” and “cordwainers” made shoes, though there are some who say “cobblers” also made shoes. Not that I care!
Before the Industrial Revolution, which took place about 1760 to 1840 (but who can say that this type of “Revolution” began or ended during a particular year), all shoes were hand made by shoemakers. After shoes were mass-produced by machines, shoemakers eventually disappeared.
Manufacturing shoes produced many more shoes, and thus enabled the machine-made shoe business to make much more money. Hand-made shoes were expensive, but each shoe was made to fit a particular person, and it fit well. It seemed to be a matter of quantity versus quality, as expressed in John Galsworthy’s short story about an old shoemaker.
When I lived in Wharton in the 1960’s, I found a great shoe repairman who repaired my boots and shoes. He was so good, I suspect he could have made new shoes or boots for you. He was one bit of evidence that shoe repairmen still exist.
My research turned up some interesting statistic on the subject, with a few conflicting reports. It seems fairly accurate today there were 100,000 shoe repair shops in the United States in the 1930s. That apparently dropped to 15,000 in 1997, and there are about 5,000 to 7,000 shops today.
Why the decline? Perhaps it’s because Americans have become a throw-away society. Perhaps it’s because foreign-made shoes made of vinyl with rubber soles glued on rather than sewn (making them very difficult to repair). Perhaps it’s cheaper to buy cheap new shoes than to repair old shoes. I don’t know the answer.
When I was a kid, I used to love to watch the shoe repairman in Old Dime Box work on shoes! I was so amazed how he could take the most worn-out looking pair of shoes and make them look good again! For a while, I even wanted to be a shoe cobbler. In later years, I would watch my shoe repairman in Wharton, chatting with him while he worked (he loved to talk). He too seemed to be a miracle worker with shoes. Why buy new shoes when he was available to repair your old ones so flawlessly!
These cobblers had such amazing restoration skills that it seemed pure artistry! As my sources say, there are still 5,000 to 7,000 shoe repair shops around today, — so how good it is that the art of shoe repair lives on!
-o-
Ray Spitzenberger is a retired Wharton County Junior College teacher, a retired Lutheran Church – Missouri Synod pastor, and author of three books, It Must Be the Noodles, Open Prairies, and Tanka Schoen.