CRAIG DOWER
Craig Dower took over his dad’s shoe repair shop. After the business closed, Craig has continued the trade as a hobby in his backyard.
I GREW up on the same road that I’m living on now in North Geelong. My mum still lives at our old home just across the road.
I moved to Newtown for a while but it was too quiet.
I went to school at North Geelong Primary, went to Bell Park Technical School and then started work at Nissan. I spent 16 years there and worked my way up and was offered assistant service manager role.
My father had polio and no one would give him a job. One fella gave Dad a start in a shoe repair store and Dad lasted there until he was 65.
I took over the shop but in 2014 we had to shut down because business wasn’t going too well. Now I just have a little workshop at home.
I repaired my first shoe about 20 years ago and God knows how many shoes I’ve repaired in that time. Back at the old place there would be shoes everywhere across the floor and it was so busy. But things just quieten down when you have places like Rivers selling shoes for $20.
You get what you pay for but people don’t get their shoes repaired as often unless they’re good quality. I sometimes do modifications on orthopaedic shoes for people who have had surgery.
The finishing machine I use is close to 100 years old. I work at a factory as my main job, but I still do shoe repairs on the side for my own enjoyment. I do an hour each night in my backyard after work.
I still get customers from my old store and a lot of it is from word of mouth. It’s not a glamorous job but you get to meet so many people and that makes it nice.
People might look at you and think “why are you doing shoe repairs?” but it’s actually enjoyable. But when you can’t make money out of it you’ve got to do something else for work.