I love to wear heels and I tend to wear them into the ground, grinding the little rubber nub away to reveal the nail supporting it. I practically cause sparks as I click along, like some sort of deranged Disney villainess. But my thrifty Swedish roots mean that I can't just toss shoes when they are perfectly fine save for the mutilated heel. But finding a good shoe repair person can be an adventure.
Last time I had shoes repaired in the U.S.A I hunted all over town to even locate a place that could do a simple heel repair. I actually had to make phone calls in this age of the internet! Paid crazy Greek fellow twenty bucks and it took a week, plus several motivating phone calls and two visits for him to actually finish the job.
Recent Shoe Repair in Shenzhen went as follows: Sat on tiny stool at foot of Mao era shoe repair woman as she ripped the sad little rubber nubs from the nail securing them, then wrenched the nail free. She deftly took a long bamboo skewer, inserted this into the hole, bashed it in with a rubber mallet, broke off the end, cut of a tiny square of rubber, held that over the bamboo, held a tiny nail in place and bashed that in and deftly filed off the excess rubber. Repeat for second shoe. Total time? Five minutes. Total cost? Fifteen quai or two smackers.
I'm going to miss you, China.
2 comments:
The difference between Shenzhen and Hong Kong: shoe repair shop is located in the mall; stool is made for an adult; cost is US$5.00. Either way, it is a wonderful convenience when the excessive city walking wears your shoes down to nubs, and you can get good as new shoes in 5 minutes.
I have a couple shoes in the need of repair. When can you have them back to me?
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