By Eric Wilson-Edge
Todd’s Shoe Repair belongs in a black and white photo. The shop is small scale industrial. The machines are bulky and loud. Layers of grease cover parts of something called a sole stitcher. The air is thick with the smells of liquid cement and shoe polish. Paul Todd stands in the middle of it all. The amiable shop keeper greets me warmly. His hands and apron are speckled with the remnants of his work.
Todd has been a cobbler for 50 years. He began his career in 1964 when his father got him a job working for a shoe repair business in Bremerton. Todd stayed on until 1968 when he joined the military. “I was military police overseas,” says Todd. “They had a place where they did repairs and I just walked in one day and asked if they needed help and they let me help.”
Todd worked in construction when he got out of the service before returning to college. His decision to return to cobbling was a foregone conclusion. “It’s a hobby and that’s how I treat it,” says Todd. “I love working with my hands.”
Todd shows me around. His work bench is cluttered with an assortment of well used tools. There doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason – but that’s the beauty. Todd is of my father’s generation. The mess is emblematic of process. The pliers were not casually dropped; they were set down in specific spot at a moment when they were no longer needed. Crisp metallic drawers with dividers inside have no place here, they’d only get in the way.
Todd opened for business in Shelton 27 years ago. Before that he bounced around trying to find the perfect combination of busyness to satisfy his needs. “I worked in Federal Way and was going to work at two in the morning and coming back at seven at night,” says Todd.
I get the sense that Todd knows just about all there is to know about shoes. He explains how there are now five types of cement when there used to be just one. I receive a summary of the different kinds of materials used to make shoes. I’m awed when Todd picks up a shoe and gives a diagnosis of someone’s medical history. “She has a short leg and must have fused ankles because she needs a rocker.”
Sadly, the art of cobbling is in decline. “There used to be 33 shops in Tacoma and now there are three,” says Todd. One reason is how shoes are made. Most footwear is pretty affordable but that doesn’t always translate into quality. When it comes to repairing or replacing a shoe it might be cheaper to choose the former. “You don’t find too many young people in this trade anymore,” says Todd. “Most of us are getting toward the retirement years.”
There’s an intimacy to the kind of work done here. Todd removes a piece of rubber from underneath a heat lamp. He sets a shoe on a metal last and slathers the heel with cement. Todd places the rubber into the goo and pounds it with a hammer before giving it a good squeeze with the mechanical press. The repair takes less than five minutes.
This isn’t a glamorous profession. It’s not sleek or high tech. Todd tells me the design for the soul stitcher has changed very little since its invention well over a hundred years ago. We don’t live in that kind of world anymore. We live in an age of the never ending upgrade. Todd’s Shoe Repair isn’t a throwback, it’s a reminder that broken things can be fixed.
207 West Railroad Ave
Shelton, WA 98584
360-427-5680
