Meet Easton's New Shoe Repairman

The sign over the door says "Downtown Shoe Repair."

But Raul Velasco does more than just repair shoes at his new South Third Street store. He more or less has to. A world of cheap, disposable shoes means that a shoe repair shop needs to diversify.

"You can't depend on one item nowadays," he said.
So Velasco, a Bronx native, shines shoes, fixes leather bags and jackets (anything leather, really) and replaces watch batteries.

As if to illustrate this, Velasco was at work Wednesday afternoon not on a shoe but some red leather boxing headgear with a torn strap. 

All the same, it's shoe repair that's been his family's business for 63 years. His father opened his first shop in 1950. Velasco, began his work in this business when he was seven years old.

"I picked it up as I grew up. All my brothers, same thing," he said.
It's an old craft that evolves with the time. Velasco says he hasn't stopped learning after 40 years repairing shoes.

"You'd be surprised. There are things, especially in the materials that keep changing," he said. "Some glues, we tend to think they can work for everything, then they don't work."
In the 1930s, there were more than 100,000 shoe repair shops in the country, according to the Shoe Service Institute of America.

Now, the institute's website lists just over 7,000 cobblers in the United States, only a handful of them anywhere near Easton. For the moment, Velasco's store appears to be the only one in the city. 

Downtown Shoe Repair, at 116 S. Third St., is open Tuesday to Friday from 10 a.m. to 7 p.m., and Saturdays from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.