Old Tucson Cobbler

Roger is one of the last in a dying profession. I simply went in to repair some snowboard boots for my son and was mesmerized by all his equipment and pride for his work. When I picked up my boots he took the time to show me around his shop and explained what equipment did what type of repair. Made me wish I lived in a time where craftsmen were the majority and not the minority. True, you can buy a new pair of shoes and throw away the old pair, but there is something about supporting a person who takes great pride in his work that makes things seem right in the world. Best of luck to you Roger.

The first ten years I went to volunteer as a ranger in the Northern Nevada desert I wore those classic suede desert boots with the vulcanized, non replaceable soles sometimes called Schwarzkopfs for the US General that popularized them.
They were comfortable, broke in easily and relatively inexpensive but after a while I noticed that I was buying, breaking in and walking the soles off of a pair a year. It seemed a shame to me that an upper that fit me and was comfortably broken in had to be thrown away because it couldn’t be resoled so I decided to go big and buy a quality and relatively expensive desert boot with a last that allowed replacement of the soles at need.
So I did so at roughly three times the cost of those Schwarzkopfs. Breaking them in was a stone bitch. I wasn’t sure what would give first, the strangely square edged interior leather toe cap or the tops of my toes. Eventually the toes won out but I was left convinced that I never wanted to do THAT again.
The new boots gave me excellent service until last year where the heel of the right boot actually came unsewn from the last. I took it to a series of «Shoe Repair» places but they were all the «maybe I can glue it on» kind of repair joints.
I eventually stumbled across a place right near where I was living in Vista called Old Tuscon Cobbler. The minute I walked in I felt I’d found the right place. The space was crowded with a variety of specialized leather sewing machines, some with complex sole forms attached.
It was the right place. The boots were repaired AND resoled for less than a pair of those older desert boots would have cost new and they actually fit better now as the cobbler sewed the uppers to a completely new last on both boots closer to the edge of the lasts which gave me a smidgen more room and eliminated a problem the boots had shown with trapping gravel between the last and the uppers.
Very Cool.
So, if you have that pair of shoes or boots that need repair I highly recommend this fellow’s work. His name is Roger and he’s the owner. His main business is custom making cowboy boots and those are really nice too.