Tip 91: Repair shoes instead of throwing them away

Did you know cobblers are still around? My wife had a nice pair of shoes that got chewed on by one of our dogs. The shoes were fairly expensive, so I decided to investigate options for shoe repair instead of throwing them away.

I found a shoe repair place in the local shopping mall. This store was different than the other stores in the mall- it was packed with industrial sewing machines and shoe repair materials. This place definitely looked more like an old-fashioned shoe factory than a modern retail store. This is just what I was looking for.
This place was able to repair my wife’s shoes for $6.35, and I took another pair that had a ripped-out seam which cost $5 to repair. Getting shoes repaired can be much less expensive than buying a new pair of shoes.
Not all shoes are worth repairing. Many of my shoes are cheap to begin with and get a lot of wear since I do not have very many pairs of shoes. Throwing my old shoes away may be the best way to go since they get pretty thoroughly worn out. Sometimes my wife even throws shoes away for me when they get really bad.

My latest pair of shoes will probably be worth repairing- I spent a bit more money to get shoes that I could repair and keep going for a long time. If you really like a pair of shoes, you can even do bigger repairs such as replacing soles and heels. If your shoes are still in pretty good shape but are just uncomfortable, you can buy shoe inserts for a few dollars to make your shoes feel like new again.

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