Quality Shoe Care
33 Paddington St, London W1U 4HF, United Kingdom
3.8
32 reviews
8 comments
GRCV+5G London, United Kingdom
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Monday: 8–18
Tuesday: 8–18
Wedneasday: 8–18
Thursday: 8–18
Friday: 8–18
Saturday: 9–14
Sunday: Close
Tuesday: 8–18
Wedneasday: 8–18
Thursday: 8–18
Friday: 8–18
Saturday: 9–14
Sunday: Close
1. They can do repairs that every other cobbler (even the really experienced ones) assures me are impossible. For example, I had an old pair of Timberland boots, which I had worn through the heel quite severely, and the heel was of an unorthodox construction, and every other cobbler in central London told me they were unrepairable unless they were sent back to the Timberland factory to be repaired at a cost of £60 and that it would take two months. These gentlemen did it for me in two days, at a cost of £25, and the heels looked better than when the shoe was new. I still marvel at this.
2. I have ALWAYS been told by cobblers in central London and elsewhere, that a one-piece rubber heel is not repairable and you just have to throw the shoe away. That seems to me very wasteful, and consequently I never buy shoes with one-piece rubber heels. However, recently I bought two pairs that looked like they had a two-piece repairable heel, but in fact they were both a one-piece UN-repairable heel. Unless of course you take them to these gentlemen, who told me they can be ground down, for a very reasonable fee, and thus converted into a shoe that CAN be repaired (and continue to be worn) indefinitely - until the upper gives out - and uppers last a lot longer than heels. So apart from the very modest fee for the repair, I saved a lot of money in the long run, because I don't have to throw my shoes away for another few years. This claim is very easy to test - take a pair of shoes with a worn-out one-piece heel to a random selection of 10 cobblers in London, and see what they say to you.
3. They have some of the best prices in London. I had a pair of brown suede shoes from Barker (not a bad maker at all) but they were the cheaper range (made for John Lewis) and the soles wore through in 2 months. This was annoying because I only paid £70 for them, and cobblers in central London charge £60-80 for a sole replacement. And I didn't like the shoes enough to pay100% of the purchase price, two months after buying them, for a repair. Do you know how much Quality Shoe Care charged me for new half-soles? £30. That was half the purchase price of the shoes, it seemed very reasonable so I did it.
4. Lastly, they are really, really honest. I once took a pair of old Church's shoes that had a split upper so I couldn't wear them any more. I wanted to turn them into tap dance shoes, but the gentlemen advised that it would cost quite a lot of money to do it, and the end result would be unsatisfactory and probably too heavy to dance in. He saved me almost a £100 that I was more than ready to hand over to him. Why? Because he is a decent honest craftsman.
As for the bad reviews, in my experience a lot of people have absolutely no idea how to care for their shoes. Even the best and most expensive shoes eventually fall to pieces if you abuse them, and I have seen some incredibly neglected shoes in cobbler's shops. I have also seen some extremely badly made shoes that are not worth fixing (or indeed buying) and no cobbler in the world can compensate for the cheap materials used in the construction. People who complain about the prices here, have surely never had a pair of shoes repaired in central London- the prices here are the cheapest and the quality of the work is highest- and these two things very rarely come in the same package.
So go there, take all your shoes there, and tell all your friends.
Can’t be beat!