Interview by Sabrina Whitford
cobblery the practice of problem-solving
up where physical therapy and medical science leave off—when that happens, craftspeople like Nelson, “build the shoe” around the injury rather than forcing the injury into the shoe. This often leads to the establishment of a true bond between client and cobbler. In an ironic twist, not lost on Nelson, he describes one of his most memorable clients as a garment factory manager from Bangladesh— yes, precisely the sort of factory churning out low cost, fast fashion to insatiable western consumers. The man sent Nelson an email describing his mother’s difficulty with a clubfoot and the absence of orthopedic shoe stores in his country. In order to be able to assist, Nelson needed a plaster cast of the mother’s foot so he began emailing video links back and forth on how to create a cast. Then geopolitics got in the way—and, for a period, the Bangladeshi government shut down Youtube in response to the Arab Spring. Still, Nelson and his client found a way. Soon the casts were in the mail and Nelson got to work. Six months later, he received a picture of the man’s mother dancing at a wedding. “Every few weeks, I get a great project like this. In the meantime I dye the wedding shoes and fix the red soles of the Louboutins.” It actually has “nothing to do with shoes,” he says. “It’s about being a shopkeeper—it’s about the people.” Nelson’s compassion is clear even in the language he chooses to describe non-medical services on his website—as if he understands that our shortcomings, our human frailties, our bad decisions can all be expressed by our footwear, or perhaps how we wear our footwear, and he forgives us. Under the heading “All Types of Shoe Repair,” you’ll find these services: EXTREME MAKOVERS Recrafting the shoes you love with new heels and soles TO DYE FOR Leather, suede, and fabric coloring NIP & TUCK Cosmetic repairs for rips and tears HOLDING IT TOGETHER Zippers, buckles, elastic and snaps COUPLES’ THERAPY When you’re committed to wearing the wrong shoe . . .
In a small city on the Hudson River, an hour or so north of New York, vestiges of its former economy, way of life, and vitality remain. The credo, “Here shall the press, the people’s right maintain,” is posted proudly outside the Poughkeepsie Journal building. The stately main post office, a New Deal project, stands intact and has been named among the country’s most beautiful. Main Street is a wide central boulevard that once bustled with shoulder to shoulder foot traffic. Within a humble storefront, on a side street, “Mark Nelson: Custom Cobbler” practices his trade, another business absent from most modern cityscapes. His shop is a gathering spot for the community—a lively hub on an otherwise quiet commercial block. Thick with the smell of leather and bursting with mallets, iron lasts, stretchers and riveters, Nelson describes his shop as “a small place where you have direct contact with people, and do a real thing, that is good.” His job is as much about compassion, forgiveness and empathy as it is stitching, gluing and buffing. Our shoes reveal much more about us than perhaps we realize and Nelson, whose clients travel from as far away as Texas to visit him, takes note of it all. Even in a world dominated by the convenience of e-commerce and the lure of free shipping, there is a desire among people to interact. Nelson asks, “Don’t you think we still want relationships and to connect to other people? Of course we do!” The Internet doesn’t provide that. Well, not usually. Of course his far-flung clientele find him online, and it’s not so difficult to do. He is one of the few practicing true cobblery, the craft of making shoes. “Nobody does what I do,” states Nelson. “Why? Because it takes 25 years of practice to even get to the starting point. I haven’t even peaked yet!” Shoe repair and shoemaking are two different things. Nelson can do both, but speaks most passionately about his fascination with the latter. Of course, there was a time when all footwear was custom- made and the uniqueness of the individual was acknowledged. Nelson eloquently tells the story of the shift by beginning with the colonial period, moving through the history of industrialization and WWII to the present day. With the dawn of mass-production and factory-made footwear, the peculiarities of the human body have become largely ignored and when an ill-fitting shoe wears out or causes pain, people will likely replace them with another pair of inexpensive, ill-fitting shoes. When asked who to blame for this mentality, Nelson’s response includes discount stores, big box stores, and large e-tailers. There is still a market for fine custom shoes, but it is a tiny sliver compared to what it once was. This is why most shoemakers, or cobblers, today spend their time problem-solving rather than making bespoke brogues. They pick
stretching, padding, and cutting down heels
The craft of cobblery is no longer common, but it certainly isn’t dead. There will always be people whose bodies don’t conform to factory standards, whose pain is unbearable and for whom there is no place else to turn. There will likely always be those whose abiding love for a certain pair of shoes forces them, again and again to resole or re-stitch or rebuild them. When we come, Mark Nelson will be waiting.
102 | Marist Fashion
Vol. 3 | 103
Made with FlippingBook HTML5