Transcript
The Brooks was started in the 30s by a fellow named Brooks. My dad bought it in 1979 and I came to work for him in 1982. I was working as an aircraft mechanic and was not really liking it. He was getting ready to retire so I came to work for him and took over.
All the parts go on, you know, a little bit oversize and then they’re finished grinding on a machine like this – they’re sized.
We do everything that you can possibly do to a pair of shoes. We mainly just heels and soles, repairing shoes, restoring the appearance of shoes. The average price of what we work on, retail price, is around $500, purchase price. And you go on as high as $1000, $1500 for a pair of boots.
Designer handbags – we do a lot of refurbishing of designer handbags. They’re a couple thousand dollars.
You see how expensive this stuff is when you realise there’s an active secondary market for designer goods.
You know, these shoes, designer shoes are more expensive than ever now so it really pays to make them last.
[And people walk a lot in Chicago]
People do walk a lot and sometimes they walk in shoes that are not so practical for walking i.e. high heels – the ladies love their heels. They can, you know, go through the heels pretty quick.
And this is the beauty part – where we make it all look nice.
We tend to get very busy in the spring and the fall. So we’re doing twice the average volume for 3 or 4 months in the year and it gets hard for us to keep up.
You know, I can get into a situation where I can’t – there’s not any room on the benches to bring the work in the shop.
I love my job. I love my job. I meet new people every day, amaze people with – you know, I have customers come in to pick up their first order, drop off some shoes and maybe they’re a little sceptical, and they come to pick up the order and they go, I’ve heard this many times : “Oh my gosh, all the shoes I threw away.”
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