Lee’s Shoe & Boot Repair

I feel badly even writing negatively about this sweet man’s business but… here goes. I had a pair of suede heels repaired here (heel replaced) 2 yrs ago and was pleased with the results and cost. I finally got around to having an expensive Australian designer hand bag repaired and brought it here a couple of weeks ago. I was told it was going to be a difficult fix but that he would give it his best and I could pick it up a week later… He required that I pre-​pay. The $ 26 seemed perfectly fair. When I return the week later to pick up the bag he hadn’t even started on it. I was asked to return the following week, but instead I gave it two weeks. I picked up the bag yesterday and it had some sort of residue all over it. He cleaned it up a bit and as I inspected the bag and his hand sewn/​glued work, I was seriously disappointed. I understood it wouldn’t look excellent, as he told me, however it may even look worse and there are bits of glue all over it. Very, very disappointed. I suppose I should have asked for my money back but… it was just $ 26… c’est la vie. Moral? Don’t take anything expensive or well loved.

Great service at a great price from an American Hero! Lee did a terrific job on my new half soles and heels. I’ll be back. (In an Arnold Schwarzenegger voice)

I recently took my footwear here to get some work done after reading the previous positive Unilocal reviews. The place is a mess, IMO and does not give you the warm and fuzzy when you walk in but I still went with it since it did receive good reviews. Big mistake!
Initially, I thought his prices are very high, but again, I went with it due to good reviews here. When I got my shoes back, it wasn’t the quality of the money he changed. He used mismatching soles and the cuts he made on the soles looked like an amateur did it for the first time with his eyes closed.
When I got it back from him, I thought about asking him to redo the creation he just crafted on my 400 dollar footwear but decided not to since he’ll take it back and hack it up even more.
I would not recommend this place to anyone.

My husband dropped off two pairs of his work shoes and a pair of my leather boots. The guy that works there did a really good job with my husband’ shoes… replaced the sole, polished, etc… looks great! However, my boots looked awful when I picked them up. The zipper on the left one was tearing from the leather, so I thought that it wasn’t a huge deal for an experienced guy to fix this and make it look good. We picked up the boots and the new zipper was sewed in there unevenly and the stitching was uneven and horrible! It looked like a 5 year old did it. Not to mention the zipper was folded at the top of the boot so it looked like he just took a glue gun to it… I couldn’t even zip it up all the way and all along the shoe had these huge bulges. My husband went back requesting a refund and the guy said that he couldn’t see anything wrong with it. He said he made sure it closes… If I wanted it just to zip up I could have done it myself! He denied doing anything wrong and ruined an expensive pair of boots. We took it back to another guy in Clairemont who was able to fix it, but there are now all the holes from the extra stitching and it doesn’t like good. Next time, I will go to the other guy first so this doesn’t happen again.
Not to mention when we picked up the boot and asked for a refund, the guy said ok but he will need the zipper he put in there back so he is holding the other boot hostage! Who does that!!! So, I had one boot at this place and one at the new place for about a week. Talk about a hot mess!

Fast affordable service — new heels/​soles within an hour.

Just brought a boot in for a simple tip repair. Called a few places who wouldn’t do same day service on a Saturday but he said to bring em on in! So I did! He was literally done with my repair before I even sat down to wait. Very cheap too, $ 12 and he replaced the tips on both boots even though only one needed to be replaced, because they would have been uneven heights otherwise, at his recommendation (I didn’t even think of that!) I will definitely be back!

Wow! You don’t find one of these everyday! The man who owns/​runs this repair shop has clearly been doing this for years. He is a Korean-​war Vet who stands proud for his service too. He takes great pride in his work and what a fantastic job he did!
I took in 2 pairs of shoes, one patent leather and the other suede. The suede shoes were a grey-​blue color with a nasty stain from my kid’s prune juice and voila– they look like new! I’m getting compliments all over again like I did when I first bought them! I had planned to donate the shoes, but for a few bucks more, they have a second life. Can’t remember exactly what I paid, but I think it was around $ 16 for both shoes to be cleaned/​repaired. The black patent leather ones had the insole coming undone and he re-​glued/​fixed them.
While I was in the store, he made some small talk and I noticed a Louis Vuitton purse in there — he explained that the zipper had broken and he would replace it. Good to know a reliable place to take my higher end stuff! If the old ladies of Del Cerro trust this guy with their goodies, then he must be legit, right? LOL!
Loved chatting with this guy, very old school — they don’t make ‘em like that anymore!