Kims Shoe Repair

A truly great family run operation, now sadly closed for good. I think the landlord booted them.

This store has closed and Kim left shoes behind. If you want to get your shoes back; come by the store on Tuesday the 23^rd in the afternoon. The owners will be here!

I’ve had probably 10 pairs of shoes fixed and modified here and the prices are always fair and work has been great. I think some of the reviews here must be from a long time ago when there was different management. Mr Kim is so nice and has always done excellent work, fixing the soles on many of my shoes and completely resoling a pair for my boyfriend, which was a more complicated job.

Unfortunately, I won’t be doing business any more at this establishment. First and foremost, the work they did was completely shoddy. I had to have the heels redone on some pumps. Worst. I also needed a stap reattached on a leather bag. They told me they could do it, but when I got the bag, it was in three different colors and it fell apart the next day– if you can’t do it, just say you can’t. I respect that honesty more than anything else. And lastly, I found the owners to be intolerant. They asked if I was related to the «brown» owners of the restaurant next door to them. When I responded no, they proceeded to tell me that the people from that restaurant owner’s country are all bad. That’s where enough was enough. I gave them a piece of my mind and bounced. Bad workmanship AND intolerant? No thank you.

Mr Kim is an adorable man who just brightened my day with his good humor and hard work. He did a really good job in no time and as I said «It’s great!» He replied «You thinking it’s great makes me really happy» which just proves how dedicated he is. It was a really good price too: $ 10 to clean light beige boots sprinkled with coffee/​mud/​wine stains

A few weeks ago i almost threw away a pair of boots that I’d had for years.
They were filthy and needed a lot of repairs. I brought them here and Mr. Kim brought them back to life! I couldn’t believe it. He cleaned and dyed the leather and they actually look new! He also charged me only $ 40 for the dye and numerous repairs.

Mr. Kim re-​soled my favorite pair of shoes. Leather Clark’s Desert Boots that I wear most days. I didn’t like the original crêpe rubber that Clark’s used, and the soles had worn through after a year of moderate use. I asked Mr. Kim to re-​sole them with a set of heavy duty vibram soles. He did a great job for $ 50, and I’m very happy with the results. The shoes now do fit a slight bit tighter, and the edge of the shoes do look a bit jagged where they were re-​joined to the new soles. But, I think it gives the shoes some rugged character, and I’d much rather have something that looks well used then something that looks shiny new. Overall, very happy, and will be back.

They did a decent job applying heel taps on a high end pair of shoes. The cobbler was not super neat with the glue, and a little got on the side of the heel. Charged me $ 5 which is more than North 11 Shoe Repair or any of the cobblers I go to in Manhattan.

Do NOT go here!
Kims is not only overpriced, but also owned by complete jerks. I went one day to pick up a pair of my roommate’s heels that had been reheeled. I figured I was there, so I brought a pair of suede boots that needed to be resoled. The backs of my boots were coming off the sole a little bit, but nothing major that my old shoe guy in the East Village couldn’t fix.
First, I gave the man the ticket for the heels and stood there while he looked for them, screaming loudly in Korean at the woman when he could not find them. Eventually he emerged and proceeded to charge $ 15, well above the original quote of $ 8. Before handing him the cash, I showed him my boots. As soon as he saw them he literally LAUGHED at me. I told him I did not appreciate being laughed at and he turned around and said something to the woman in Korean and then she laughed as well. I promptly picked up my boots and walked out, not even realizing that I didn’t even pay for the heels. Nornally I would feel badly and go back, but clearly they do not care about customer service and I wasn’t going to take oblige them by paying to be laughed at.