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What do hockey equipment, shoulder straps and riding gear have in common? The answer is shoemakers. A shoemaker repairs a good deal more than shoes, and most of what comes in to the shoemaker’s is leather and stitching rather than footwear.
If you have a pair of gloves you like but the seams have gone, bring them in rather than replacing them. Shoemakers work with leather and detail and have both the tools and the knowledge to repair the equipment.
Hockey gear has become a steadily more common job. More people see the value in repairing and keeping rather than replacing.
Riding, like hockey, is a sport with a lot of equipment that wears, and new equipment is both expensive and resource-heavy. Jumping saddles, girths, stirrups and bridles are all repaired at the shoemaker.
Rugs, wraps and saddle pads are a laundry matter instead. Our laundry handles those.
Bags are what most often gets forgotten. A strap gives way, and the bag ends up at the back of a cupboard even though the repair is straightforward.
It applies equally to the sports bag, the hockey bag and the handbag.
Most of what comes in is leather and stitching rather than footwear.
When the season starts, so does the question of whether the leathers need repairing. It rarely costs what people expect, and it does not have to go through a specialist retailer. Our shoemakers have long experience of working with that kind of leather and stitching.
Opening and closing a zip enough times will eventually make it stick or fail. It is usually the slider that has gone rather than the teeth, but both are replaced together because they wear at the same rate.
Zips are one of the most common repairs a shoemaker takes on.
If you are unsure whether something can be repaired, bring it in and we will tell you straight away. What the shoemaker’s takes in is set out there.
Shop manager