Minnesota’s oldest cobbler custom-soles Crocs and converts Nikes to bowling shoes

In the George family’s shoe-repair shops around the Twin Cities, decades-old machines hum and whirr to stitch soles, grind edges and polish leather with horsehair brushes. The cobblers revive all kinds of footwear, from the fashionistas’ Christian Louboutins to the factory workers’ steel-toed boots.

Two branches of the George family’s fourth generation are among Minnesota’s best-known cobblers, running George’s Shoes & Repair, with locations in Arden Hills and Stillwater, and George’s Shoe & Skate Repair in St. Paul.

The cobbler’s job has changed dramatically since family patriarch Joseph George opened a boot-making shop in Lebanon in 1905. Since the family’s arrival in Minnesota, it has evolved its business through the advent of e-commerce, the rise of fast fashion and the decline of formal officewear. While heels and soles remain George’s most common requests, they can customize Crocs with grippy bottoms and even convert Nikes to bowling shoes.

Although last-century’s 100,000 or-so shoe-repair shops have dwindled to a few thousand, the Georges’ businesses continue to thrive. This weekend, siblings Luke and Melissa George are celebrating the reopening of their new, larger Arden Hills shop along with Luke’s recent win of an international shoe-repair competition. The Grand Avenue shop run by their cousins — brothers Brian, Chris and Dan George — which has fixed footwear for both Jennifer Lopez and Beyoncé, “just keeps getting busier” Brian says.

The Georges love seeing younger generations take an interest in refurbished, well-made apparel, and helping people realize the possibilities in their own closets. “You’re teaching the consumer: You don’t have to throw this away,” Melissa said.

Due to the shops’ expertise with resizing or repairing leather belts, purses and jackets, customers have brought them unusual requests. That includes patching the skin of a taxidermy bear and performing surgery on an antique grappling dummy.

The St. Paul shop has a rare specialty in repairing sporting goods. The staff resoles climbing shoes, replaces ski-boot zippers and even rebuilt the lucky kicking spike that helped former Viking Blair Walsh set rookie-season records. The shop’s skill with hockey equipment has earned the trust of many NHL players. Back in the 1990s, when the crew filming “The Mighty Ducks 2” needed to shoot a scene in a skate-repair shop, they sought out George’s.

The repair business is, essentially, a mix of art, science and judgment call: The cobbler proposes possible ways to fix an item, and the customer decides if it’s worth the price.

Customers often choose to repair their shoes, even when the work costs as much as a replacement, Luke says, because then they don’t have to shop for or break in a new pair, and they’ll reduce their environmental footprint. He says customers appreciate being given an honest assessment, so they’re not throwing good money after bad. “You can’t be in business for 120 years and cheat people.”

Most of the world’s footwear manufacturers are now located in Asia, and, generally speaking, quality isn’t what it used to be, Luke says. Aesthetic trends have also shifted. (Shops are no longer swamped with requests to dye satin shoes to match bridesmaid dresses, for example.)

Even before the pandemic turned slippers into workwear, people were dressing down, swapping pumps for flats. “We’d buy boxes of heels by the hundreds, and now we order by the dozens,” said Ron George, Luke and Melissa’s father, who is easing into retirement. (A tough transition for a guy who once kept a shoe machine at his cabin.)

But custom detailing is very popular, whether that’s putting French tips on a dress shoe or engraving the soles with an important date. The Georges especially enjoy projects that are sentimental, such as adding lace to Grandpa’s cowboy boots for a bride’s wedding day. Or fun requests, like attaching a Yoda head to a Croc.

Birkenstock wearers are among the Georges’ most nostalgic, eco-conscious customers. “Some people are so into their Birks, they don’t want to change the way they feel,” Luke said. “They’ll wear them into the ground until there’s a hole through the footbed.”

A little over a year ago, Ron’s deadpanned commentary on a pair of the trashed sandals racked up 12 million views on social media. His children could only speculate on why the video went viral. “A good-looking old Lebanese guy in an apron with a beat-up pair of Birkenstocks?” Luke mused. “We didn’t even show an ‘after.’”

Since then, their mail-in shoe-repair jobs increased from a few packages a week to several a day.

As a wave of older cobblers retires, there are fewer young people with the skills to replace them. Vocational schools don’t tend to teach the trade anymore, Brian noted. “It’s pretty much you grow into it,” he said. Brian launched his career by helping around the shop as a kid. These days, he enjoys watching his children assist clients whose families have been coming to George’s for generations.