Stella Link Shoe Service

this is hilarious! we have a voucher from Mr. Robert Kaminsky (owner) to have free shoes service since he lost the last pair a few months ago. My husband brought him another pair and HE LOST THOSE PAIR TOO !!! They were old beat up Cole Haan so my husband had nothing to lose this time. Of course, it’s the same routine of looking all over the shop and there’s nothing to be found. Nice, sweet owner but there comes a time in life where one can longer adequately do their job and realize that they don’t have the capacity to do it anymore.

Very conveniently located and the owner is a very nice man. His English is not great, however. I found it very difficult to communicate with him. More importantly, I was very disappointed in his work.
I brought him three pairs of shoes and one pair of sandals with the following results:
–First pair. Black faux leather Mary Janes. I had brought them in to see if he could stretch them lengthwise a bit. He couldn’t. Other shoemakers also said that you really can’t stretch fake leather lengthwise, only a little bit width wise.
–Second pair. Sneakers. A piece of felt that lies between the inner lining of the shoe and the leather at the back of the heel had apparently folded over, creating a bump that gave me a blister during my morning walk. I asked if he could somehow open the lining and flatten out the bump. He pretty much insisted there was nothing wrong, even though you could plainly feel the difference with your hands between the good sneaker and the bad sneaker. To appease me, he put the bad sneaker on his anvil and simply hammered the outside of it. «This is better,» he said. «I made it softer.» Thank goodness he didn’t charge me!
I brought the shoes to another shoemaker who quickly diagnosed the problem and is charging me $ 15 to perform minor surgery on them. I pick them in two weeks.
–Third pair. Sandals. The lining of one of the insoles had torn. I asked if he could fix it. He glued new leather heels on the insoles of each sandal, and that seems to have done the trick, at least for now. Meanwhile, he polished the shoes using some kind of clear spray, which makes them look unnaturally shiny. I’m not pleased with the new look and I hadn’t asked him to polish them, in the first place! I’m hoping the sheen will wear off soon.
–Fourth pair. Total disaster! These are my good, every day business/​dress shoes. Regular black men’s shoes with rubber soles. The shoes needed new soles as the heels were about to have holes in them.
The owner promised the shoes on a Friday, but when I got there, he had a hard time locating them. They were still on his work bench. He asked if I could wait ten minutes, but I had to go. When I came back on Monday, the shoes still were on the bench. While the soles had been replaced, the shoes had not been polished, which was actually okay because I hadn’t asked him to polish them. Nonetheless, he insisted on polishing them while I waited another few minutes. Big mistake!
At first glance, he seemed to have replaced the soles well enough by replacing the heels and the front part of the outsoles but keeping the arches in the middle of the outsoles inplace. He had hammered the components in place with nails and painted them black on one shoe and left them unpainted on the other shoe. I noticed that the head of one of the nails also sat diagonally in relation to the soul and did not sit flush with it. I was concerned that this might become a problem as the soles wore down. Since I really just wanted to get my shoes and leave, I didn’t ask him to do a better job of tamping down the nail.
More problematic was that the sides of the outsoles, which are supposed to be shiny and smooth, were anything but. He had apparently sanded them down and left them looking unfinished. Again, I just wanted to leave so didn’t complain.
Plus, he totally botched the polishing job. From the waiting area I heard the sound of a spray can and the whirring of his polishing machine. When he presented the shoes to me minutes later, they were all blotchy. Some spots had not shine and other spots looked like the patent leather of rented tuxedo shoes. I pointed out the problem to him and he dripped a little oil onto one of the shoes and rubbed it in with a cloth. It made no difference. The shoes still looked terrible! And since he had just sprayed them, they had a strong, offensive odor which made me nauseous as I drove in my car… to another shoemaker to have this $ 35 mess repaired!
The next shoemaker stripped the shoes of the polish and re-​polished them. Now they look amazing.
But wait. There’s more!
The second shoemaker looked at the new soles and couldn’t believe that he hadn’t replaced them with a one-​piece Vibram sole, the standard replacement for shoes of this type. And he also couldn’t believe how scuffed up the sides of the soles were. He offered to redo the soles for $ 65. I declined and left the shoes with him to be polished.
An hour later he called and asked me if I had tried the shoes on after picking them up from the first shoemaker. I hadn’t. «That’s a good thing,» he said. «The nails go straight through to the insoles!» He removed the nails free of charge, filled in the holes and reinforced the glue used to hold the pieces on. He saved me from a bloody mess!
I highly recommend Bellaire Shoe Repair, who fixed the mistakes of Stella Link Shoe Service. Regarding Stella Link, however, beware.

Owner went above and beyond on my husband’s shoes I brought to his shop. I just asked him to fix a part of the sole that had come unglued and he put on a new heel because they were worn down. Only $ 7 per shoe, and my husband says they feel like new. Sweet old man, I want to give him all the business in the world. Works quickly, too!
Side note: he only accepts cash. There’s a Wells Fargo ATM just a few buildings away.

Hands down best shoe repair in town. Owned and operated by a gentle, sweet old man, who did a marvelous job not only for my shoes, but for stitching up my purse in a short time, charged half as much as the market value. The shop is 3 feet away from Three brothers bakery, what more can you ask for? Easy to work with, great professional experience, wonderful price, great hours, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.