Uptown wholesaler is lifeblood of region’s cobblers
The lifeblood of the region’s shoe repair industry is a two-man time capsule in Uptown.
Rocco Bracco founded it as Fort Pitt Leather Co. in 1942. It wasn’t the only wholesaler of shoe repair supplies in the area, but it is now. The only other wholesaler in this half of the state is in New Castle.
Owner John Capaccio, Mr. Bracco’s great-nephew, sells to cobblers throughout Western Pennsylvania, as far east as Harrisburg, and further afield to Ohio, West Virginia, New York state and even Alabama. He also sells polish, laces, brushes and other shoe care supplies to shoe shiners, prisons, country clubs and retail stores.
The Fort Pitt shop is long and narrow, bracketed by floor-to-ceiling wooden shelves. You can feel its 77year history in the air, in the smell of boxes and leather, in the dust and the radiators and old clocks, in the iron scale that’s big enough to cradle a baby, in the linoleum squares of dark red and slate blue.
Mr. Capaccio doesn’t know how old the scale is: “In 1942, my great-uncle probably bought it used.”
Way at the back, where Mr. Capaccio has his office, the handwritten customer ledger on his desk is a historical record of the industry. As he counts his clients, he bypasses pages and pages of former clients. To date, 51 shoe repairmen depend on his inventory.
Of one former client, the State Correctional Institution Pittsburgh, he said, “their business used to be huge. They trained inmates [in shoe repair]. I used to deliver down there.”
Mr. Capaccio, 64, grew up stocking the same shelves he stocks now with his employee, Dan Kromer.
“I have been walking through the same door for 59½ years,” he said. “My oldschool father [Nick Capaccio] had me sweeping and stocking shelves when I was 5. He told me, ‘Once you’re in kindergarten, you have responsibilities.’”
John departed long enough to get a degree in business and finance from the Community College of Allegheny County, “but my dad persuaded me to stay in this,” he said. “Back then, we were open on Sundays. Sunday was a big business day.”
As John got older, after Mr. Bracco retired, his father gave him more responsibility.
He first had to learn the customers by their non-native-English accents on the phone. They were leery of him, he said, “but when I filled out enough orders without making mistakes, they started to trust me.”
He also became his father’s road rep, making deliveries to cobblers’ shops.
As wholesale suppliers began thinning out, Fort Pitt Leather and I. Samuels and Sons in New Castle began buying from and selling to each other to ensure they had enough but not too much of any particular supplies. No one wants to be stuck with loads of inventory when the last cobbler turns out the lights.
Alan Samuels, the fourthgeneration owner, said there is only one cobbler left in New Castle. He sells supplies to shoe repair shops, but he also sells footwear, and the largest part of his business is with the Amish, he said, “in 10 states. I travel to them. If it wasn’t for the Amish, I would be out of business.”
Mr. Capaccio grew up in Carrick. His grandfather was a shoemaker, and the trade rubbed off on him: “I know what my clients’ needs are.” His father’s old-world ways rubbed off on him, too, because he had his own three kids working in his store when they were no taller than the third tier of shelving.
Sometime in the late 1970s, his father bought the former sausage factory next door for inventory, and in the 1980s, Mr. Capaccio built out the back all the way to the alley for more warehouse space. The result is a labyrinthine basement trove of inventory, with aisles like a library — laces in one section, thick sheets of rubber crepe for build-ups and soles in another, and everything else in its place — shoe cream, leather dye, mink oil, water repellent, half soles, heels, heel seats, orthotic arches, brass eyelets.
He also has vintage auto nailers in case a client needs parts.
“If I have a 90-year-old client; he’s not going to invest in a new machine, and I want to keep him in business.”
As for himself, he said he is “busy enough.”
But the future doesn’t look good for the quality shoe.
“We’ve lost a lot of repairmen. Kaufmann’s alone had maybe 15 cobblers working in the ‘70s. Murphy’s, McCrory’s, Gimbels, Horne’s, they all had them. Now there are just three Downtown.
“People ask me if I’m going to retire,” he said. “I am slowing down because my clients are dying off” or closing. “Every year, it seems it’s another one.”