Shoe Repair

For prior generations, the shoe menders shop was a key feature of the
high street in the United Kingdom. Once as important as the grocers,
the bakers and the butchers, there would be a shoe menders, also often
referred to as a cobblers in almost every town in the UK. However, with
mass production techniques and the global economy we are now living in,
is there still a need for this occupation?

Shoe repairers, or cobblers as they are often known typically offer
additional services alongside the repair of footwear. Very often, you’ll
encounter a cobblers offering key cutting services from the same shop.
Other services include dry cleaning, engraving and the repair or
replacement of watch straps.

Surveys vary but claim that there are in the region of 3,000 and
6,000 cobblers currently in the UK. Some leading supermarkets are now
providing an in-store shoe repair service, in addition to those
operating their own businesses, or being employed as part of a large
chain.

The main responsibilities of a shoe mender include the replacement
and repair of heels, dyeing and staining of leather, cleaning and
polishing, and the fixing of zips, buckles and straps.

Although it may not be cost-effective to repair many of the cheaper
shoes being sold today, sending shoes for fixing, instead of replacing
them makes strong economical and environmental sense, especially where
higher-end shoes are concerned. A good shoe mender can restore a pair of
shoes back to an almost-new condition and prolong their lives by
numerous years.

In our ancestors times, it would be unthinkable to throw away a pair
of shoes just because the heel had worn out. In this case, the footwear
would always be taken to the cobblers.

Becoming a cobbler requires no academic qualifications from school,
but training is usually given on the job, under the supervision of an
experienced colleague, and there are recognised qualifications and
NVQ/QCF qualification.

The phrase ‘a load of cobblers’ is often used in the United Kingdom
to describe something that is either not true, or ‘a load of rubbish’.
The origin of this comes from Cockney Rhyming Slang and is nothing to do
with the shoemaker himself, but instead of one of his tools; the awl,
which he uses for making holes in leather.

The
phrase originates from ‘a load of cobblers awls’, which is rhyming
slang for balls, or testicles. One of the first references of the phrase
in print was in the British music magazine, “Melody Maker”, when in
October of 1968, one of their journalists described a comment on a club
in Glasgow as a ‘load of cobblers’

Although footwear has become a throwaway product for many people,
there are still those who regularly use the services of their local shoe
repairer, so this is a trade that has the potential to continue for
many years.