Cobbler sees few following footsteps
Southwest Shoe & Luggage still kicking after four decades
The footwear industry has seen several design and manufacturing changes over the past half-century, and the shoe repair business has had to adapt.
Observing the evolution in Little Rock is Wilson Smith, who has endured as one of the city’s last practicing shoe repairmen.
Smith has operated Southwest Shoe & Luggage from a wood-paneled storefront at 7510 Baseline Road for 41 years and has been in the industry for 50. His family still owns the farm he grew up on in the Arkansas Delta; he began shining shoes while attending a segregated high school and matriculated at what was then Little Rock University to avoid the Vietnam War. But he learned his trade as an apprentice from his brother, who took it up after a back injury ended his ability to do agricultural work in what was then West Helena.
“It’s a good business. You have to work hard, but I like to work,” Smith said.
What began as a shoe repair operation expanded into luggage in the 1980s. Women’s shoes are the highest volume item now, a shift from when men’s shoes’ soles and heels were made with rubber crepe or leather instead of synthetics. Synthetics are harder to repair, so many damaged men’s shoes are now thrown out.
“They made them for comfort. Some of them are good, but some of them, as far as the soles, are just junk. You have a good leather upper and then a synthetic sole that will freeze you in the wintertime, break and in the summertime it would melt,” Smith said. “It’s cheaper, but they don’t sell it cheaper. They still sell it at the same price.”
Men’s boots, not dress
shoes, are prevalent. Women’s repairs have been for high heels and platform shoes, and many customers bring their heels in to get cut down.
“Business has always been good,” he said. “People are not leaving shoe repair because business is not good. You could open up a shoe shop anywhere in Little Rock and make money. It’s just there’s no interest, and nobody wants to do it.
“When I was growing up, we always thought that any kind of career you make, if you go into entrepreneurship — if you go into business — that’s a good thing. The kids now, they want to go either to college or trades schools,” Smith said.
Smith has had employees who learned the business from him, but none of them have gone on to open their own shops. Now in his early 70s, he said the only reason he works is to fund his expensive tennis hobby.
He does not anticipate the industry going away. He thinks that Hispanics will occupy the industry’s niche, similar to the way Hispanics have taken leading roles in other blue collar industries.
Smith said there was never a preponderance of Black shoe repairmen the way there used to be so many Black shoeshiners who put stands out on the street or in barber shops.
“Back when I started, there were three, maybe four Black shoe shops in Little Rock,” Smith said. “In North Little Rock and Little Rock, there were about 35, 36 shoe repair shops.”