…not because I didn’t think they could pull it off — I knew they could — but I wasn’t sure it was such a great idea. Somebody wanted to turn these tapered-toe, turquoise cowboy boots
into a round toe. Like I said, I was sure Dan could manage the mechanics of it, but I thought it was kind of a crazy thing to do. I mean, you gotta get in there, build a new toe-box,
do the welt thing
(he explained all the steps to me and I can’t remember them all, because, damn.) But when he was done with them (and sadly, I only have this one last shot of them before they went out the door because the customer who wanted them REALLY wanted them and picked them up on the same day they were finished, which was a day I wasn’t there.)
But there you see the rounded toes!
I have to say, I was pretty impressed.
As a trade, a shoe repair shop can be all about some pretty banal stuff: There’s a lot of shoe shining, a lot of zipper repair, (Our zipper jockey is crazy good and I hope he starts teaching me how to do it and soon.) a lot of heel savers and shoe lifts, a lot of zipper pulls, and believe it or not, way more repairs on stuff destroyed by dogs than you would think. But I’ve learned I can’t underestimate them. I’ve been surprised by what they can do there, stuff I wouldn’t even consider, like rounding a toe on a boot I otherwise liked.
I chalk this one up as a “things that make me go, Huh.”