We are all familiar with the type of person, generally a Leftist, who has a particular type of condescending contempt for America and love for Europe.
You hear things like:
America has no culture.
Everything in Europe is quaint/better/more cultured/[synonym for superior] to America.
For example:
This is why I love Paris. There are still cobblers. When I told this cobbler there weren’t any such things in America anymore he was stunned. pic.twitter.com/9RFeBnZ55h
— Eleanor Beardsley (@ElBeardsley) March 9, 2022
Ms. Beardsley is the Paris correspondent for National Public Radio.
Of course she loves that Paris has cobblers and how happy she was to shit on America for not having cobblers to a Parisian.
I bet it made her feel so superior.
No doubt she believes that all Americans wear disposable sneakers from Wal-Mart and have no need to resole a shoe.
Tell me you have never met a soldier or cowboy without telling me you never met a soldier or cowboy.
Every city I’ve ever lived in had a boot repair shop and at least half the items I’ve seen on the shelves were high dollar cowboy boots and uniform/combat boots.
There are also a fair amount of high end hunting, hiking, or work boots.
I’ve had several pairs of boots resoled.
When you spend a few hundred dollars on quality work boots, you want them to last.
My dad was a lawyer, he had dress shoes that were older than me and would have them resoled as well.
These places exist but I guess Bob’s Boot Repair (an actual place in Rapid City, SD that does excellent work) isn’t as quaint and cultured as a Parisian cobbler shop, so it doesn’t count.
So without a doubt Ms. Beardsley was absolutely wrong, going entirely by her prejudices and not knowledge. But what else could you expect from a sneering Leftist who works for NPR and lives in Paris.
My Father was like that. He had four-six pairs of Florsheims, that he regularly had resoled and reheeled. Every Sunday he would be polishing his shoes he wore last week. Part of it was he had small and narrow feet. Most stores did not carry size 7 Men’s shoes. When we took a vacation in Chicago, one stop was always the shoe store that he knew had his size shoes.
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So many “new” boots and shoes are made to be disposable. I had two pairs of Redwing Steel Toed Work boots from 2004 and 2006 ($120-140/pair). They had the non metallic toe caps. I have not had reason to wear them much these last few years. The soles literally fell of the boots when I wore them doing yard work two years ago. They were not sewn, but molded and glued. Another cheap pair of work boots had soles that were actually dissolving into goo when I pulled them off the shelf.
Having trouble finding a good solid leather CCW Belt? Talk to your local shoe repair shop. Maybe they can custom make one for you.
Curious about Redwing. I have Redwing boots (logger type, steel toed) which have sewn soles. Given my limited use, resoling isn’t likely to be a concern, but it’s good to know I have the option.
I was required to have the toe caps, and since I walked through magnetometers several times a day at work, the non metallic caps worked better. The only models I remember that had the non metallic toe caps were the model with the molded rubber soles (not sewn). Since work only provided a $100 annual discount on new boots, I picked those. They were great and I used them almost daily for 5-6 years, then only very occasionally for about 6 years until they fell apart.
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Would I recommend Red Wing Boots? Yes. They were so much better than other brands.
If you want boots that can be resoled, they are usually in the $200+ range and have calfskin lining.
The $100 boots with the cloth lining are disposable. Even if you could resole them, the lining wears out.
Those are made in a quality and price range for employers to give shoe credits.
My Sundays were spent polishing my dad’s shoes for the office.
This is why I love DETROIT. There are still cobblers. When I told this cobbler there weren’t any such things in BAGWANISTAN anymore he was stunned.
There, sweetie, FIFY.
There are cobblers in NYC, but they’re in working class neighborhoods and they’re working class cobblers. They deal in work boots, combat boots, and Zeyde’s fifty year old oxfords… They aren’t trendy, artisanal, chic, and overpriced.
“Not our class, dear.” is the rallying cry of the progressive left.
Beat me to it Ish.
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The issue isn’t the lack of cobblers, it’s that they are not next door to Whole Foods, Norstroms, Needless Markup, err.. I mean Neiman Marcus, etc… If there was one on the Miracle Mile, Rodeo Drive, or Park Avenue, this idiot might have seen one. Therefore, they do not exist.
Detroit? I live in a small city in central Florida and we have a few shops here. I imagine they’re everywhere.
I’d say she never stepped outside NYC but I’ll bet they’re in that festering hole, too.
I wouldn’t trust npr any further than bidet’s lips on obama’s a**.
Checked my small town/city, and there are over a dozen shoe repair places. Checked the places I used to live, and there are plenty of places. If this person has not seen one, it is because they do not want to see it.
She’s looking for a street sign that says “cobbler”. She didn’t do the “2+2” about what cobblers do, and didn’t notice the signs that say “shoe and boot repair”. Alternatively (or maybe additionally), she only looked at the flashy main-drive storefronts, not registering the side-street and hole-in-the-wall locations that most American cobblers lease.
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My sleepy little town has probably a dozen such shops. Multiple in the trendy “downtown” areas, even. But they’re not big shops next-door to Macy’s or Nordstrom’s; you have to actually look for them, and their signs don’t say “cobbler”.
I don’t even think this is a class thing; the greatest concentration of cobbler shops I’ve seen in any American city is the neighborhood right around Harvard, just outside of Boston, MA. On the shelves there are some workboots yes, but lots of dress shoes too, and many well dressed customers.
Rather this is a case of “Can the journalist observe reality and make accurate statements describing it?”. Clearly in this case the answer is a resounding no. Myself I feel what must be a similar sense of astonishment to this Parisian cobbler’s each time I tune my radio to NPR.
The really ironic thing is that if her kid wanted to be a cobbler, she’d throw a full tilt fit.
The sneering attitude my eldest daughter gets every time she tells one of these laptop class types that she wants to be a welder and/or blacksmith is a source of endless amusement to me… and fuel for her.
At the start of the previous school year, her fresh-out-of-university health teacher was leading the class in a discussion of “emotional health” and asked “what motivates you?”
She was less than pleased that my daughter replied “Spite.”
She was downright appalled that both my husband and I responded to her concerned text messages with (paraphrasing) “Yup. That seems accurate.”
Now had your daughter said ‘spite or hatred of republicans/conservatives/Trump’ it would have been applauded and encouraged.
She was probably equally distressed that you and your husband felt that way since you’re not following the proper socio-political requirements of your demographic.
This “NPR employee” can keep his happy ass in Paris then, if he thinks Europe is so great. He’ll be bitching up a storm about the EU laws within months.
Peak Stupid for sure.
Where I sit, literally on the Dallas border, I can think of half a dozen cobbler shops. There’s a really good one about a mile away. When I lived in Virginia, I think there were at least three in short driving distance.
We’ve really dove into the deep end of the clueless pond here. This is why I don’t listen to NPR. This is just an example of bullshit they emit, which will be believed without question by those like them.
I used to have to wear suits every day. So I had shoes to match, as well as boots. I have dress shoes that are literally older than some of my kids.
What I learned when I had to dress was that well made leather shoes last, and they let your piggies breathe. I think I was wearing a pair of sketchers or rockports at one point. Sitting in my cube, I got to smelling feet-stink and realized it was from my shoes. That cheap imitation leather, and rubber soles held in moisture and created a horrible funk generator. That’s when I went to expensive leather.
I have two pairs of boots. I usually buy ropers. And I’d wear them all the time when I travelled, since they go on and off in a second. My current pair is deer skin, my second of this type. I usually resole them until they are too worn.
She probably wouldn’t count the character shoes that Vegas dancers use because well, Vegas, totes declasse. Not realizing that you can wreck your feet in a week if you dance professionally in cheap shoes that are not in good repair.
Id guess she probably never bothered to google.
There are two shoe repair business within 10 miles of my house. Many more within 20. And I’d call shoe repair a niche business but there seems to be plenty of options.
In fact I just had some boat shoes resoled at one!