John’s Shoe Repair

The best shoe repair! They have done really difficult jobs for me — vintage and new.
Really fast and very reasonable.

You can’t ask for better shoe repair. Great quality of materials and of workmanship, at a fair price. I hope they stay forever.

Was AWESOME! Just needed to get two pairs of heels fixed and they did it in 5 minutes! Definitely found my go-​t o shoe repair in the city!

This place is AMAZING! I had never been to a cobbler before and did not know what to expect, but I will always go back here now! The work they did on my Chanel pumps was amazing– they looked brand new. I’m so happy!

I needed to have a strap on my knapsack sewn and was recommended to go to John’s by another local tailor. Not only was it fixed in under 2 minutes but the gentleman was courteous, direct and charged me fairly.
Also, the interior energy gave off charming antiquity (if a bit rustic) of a classic New York tailor/​shoe repair shop. Convenient location, too.
Give them a try!

got new soles put on my shoes and when I picked them up, there was residual glue all over them. Instead of cleaning them up thoughtfully, the guy behind the counter began scraping it away, scratching up the rest of the shoes in the process. Granted my shoes were not in perfect shape to begin with, but that’s no reason to leave glue all over them or scrape them up further. I’ll never come back here.

Buy my laces here because they are a bit cheaper than some other places but have regretted using them for more careful work.
I came in a while back to get an extra hole punched in a belt and the young guy just eyeballed it rather than measuring exactly where the next hole should be. Sufficient to say, he didn’t have a great eye.
More recently, I was trying to attach an external pocket to a waxed canvas bag. The 6 layers were too much for my sewing machine so I took it in to see whether they could sew it on. The young guy asked for $ 20, but agreed to $ 15.
When I picked it up the stitching was crooked. They didn’t apologize but I figured that they’d tried their best. When I got home I put on my glasses only to discover that while the one side was in the black thread that matched the rest of the bag, the other – visible — side was in brown. Ended up having to pull out the stitching and did it by hand.

The shoe shine was excellent and fast: I’ve been looking for the right shoe shine place in or near the East Village, and now I’ve found it.

while it may have cost a smidge more than i anticipated, the service was great. walked in on a busted shoe and Ariel fixed it while I waited, and then asked to see the other shoe and reinforced that one too.

These guys are great. I went to three shops before this to get some soles fixed (all with four stars on Unilocal), and all three gave me the same really bad option to fix my shoes. These guys looked at the shoes, picked out a few different ways to go, and we agreed on a really great way to fix them. The shoes look amazing now.
When I picked up my shoes a few hours later he was doing the same thing with another customer.
If you want your shoes fixed fixed at a place that buys gold and repairs watches, go somewhere else. If you want your shoes fixed at a real shoe repair shop go to John’s.

These guys are great. Before I moved closer, I used to take 2 trains just to go to Joe’s. They are super fast, priced well and do a great job.

Where to start… gave this place a chance since it looked like it had been around for a while and I had seen positive reviews in the past. Lesson learned — I will not be back there ever again.
I brought a pair of shoes that had a worn down heel and needed a new leather wraparound piece to stitch everything in. We negotiated down to a price that I still felt was high, but I’m not a cobbler and it was a bit of work so I accepted. We agreed that I would come in 5 calendar days later.
I showed up 5 calendars later early in the am. No shoes. Came back the next day and what I found were hardly the shoes that I had dropped off.
I am a bit picky about what I put on my feet, and I wear these shoes almost every day, so I asked him to make sure when I picked them up they looked exactly the same (same patina, wood heel, white stitching around the outside). What I got were beautiful soles, leather heel, brown stitching and an area on the bottom of the leather part of the shoe that had previously been covered by a wraparound piece (which was not adequately replaced) that had a totally different patina. He explained that that the fault of the piece that was there before and he tried to stain it out (clearly after he had already put on the sole) and in the process had stained the stitching. He said the stitching will become white soon.
So I got back a different shoe with mismatched patina throughout the leather, dark brown stitching and a non-​wood heel.
Never again will I be back and I urge all of you to go to a real professional if you are getting real work done. I learned my lesson the hard way. Sucks.

Just wanted to update since I’ve had work done on 2 separate occasions recently. The quality and prices were as good as ever. I had partial and full soles and re-​heeling done (no complaints about any of it), and I was offered the option of same-​day service both times.

I agree — I’m surprised by the neg reviews. This place is consistently good, timely, and the men who run the place are very nice.
I recommend it!

I have to agree with Leena H. and Hannah K. This place used to be a lot better but customer service and quality of work is just severely lacking.
I dropped off a pair of black heeled loafers two days ago. The heels were worn unevenly and needed to be fixed. The first shock is that it used to cost $ 8 just in 2008. Now? $ 13.
He said, «Tomorrow OK?» Me, «Sure, but I might not be able to get them until Friday (3 days later).» Him, «OK».
I actually was able to come in the next day to fetch my shoes. I showed up about 5:30, before they closed. I handed the young man that works there and he couldn’t find my shoes. Apparently they hadn’t started on them. I had a dinner to get to BY 6PM and I had to wait while they did my shoes. When done, I rushed out and grabbed a cab but I was still late.
This morning I put on my shoes and they made this horrid tapping noise when I walked on my wood floors. These are loafers mind you, not heels. I looed at the bottom of the shoes and they stuck these round white plastic things in the middle of my heels. One dead center in the middle of each heel. What the hell are these for??? (The heels themselves measure about 1.25″ square and the white circle things are like 8 mm across). I don’t know what they are but this is bizarre. They really should have explained to me if they were going to do something out of the ordinary with my shoes (which they have reheeled before).
I’m peeved that they did this. I’ve tried to call their business to find out what happened but all I got is their fax machine. The heels otherwise look good, but making me wait and then doing this weird crap with my heels ensures that I won’t be back again. These are my favorite shoes and now the noise they make just burns a hole in my brain.

A few months ago, I would have given this place 5 stars. Now they don’t even deserve 1.
I’ve been going to John’s Shoe Repair for over a year now, and the guy always did a great job. He charged $ 6 for weatherproofing my Frye’s and his spray job lasted months. My husband wears down the soles of his boots really fast –we’re talking 2 months till you can see right through them –and he did such an amazing resole job that even one year later, the boots look completely new. I sent my neighbor over to get her Frye’s resoled and dyed, and they looked absolutely incredible when he was done. I’ve recommended this place to everyone I know who needs their shoes redone or weatherproofed or, hell, even shined.
More recently though, their work has gotten shoddy. I’ve heard a lot of complaints from a lot of friends («Never again!»). Regardless, I haven’t been there in months.
I sent a friend (Seryi B.) over with boots and they screwed them up.
These were brand new boots, not a spot on them, and after weatherproofing, there were magically 2 grease stains that he claimed were there from the start. I was with my friend when she purchased the boots. They were immaculate.
He was rude to my friend and tried to charge her $ 10 for the weatherproofing (what happened to the $ 6 he always charged me??). He was completely unreasonable and yelled at her, refused to even knock down the charge a couple of bucks for his mistake. She left her boots and walked out –that’s how rude this guy was.
I went in and calmly tried to talk to him and he was unbelievably rude to me, to the point that I am never going back there again. I’m also never going to recommend him for anything. If you make a mistake, admit it. There’s this little thing called customer service that apparently John’s Shoe Repair hasn’t heard of.
He just lost a For Life customer, and all the business I’ve sent his way. Save your money. Go somewhere where they actually give a crap about their customers.
John’s Shoe Repair? Never again.

To sum it up: WORST EXPERIENCE EVER! I cant give this a zero but if i could i would…
These people do not have any sort of customer service.
I work right next door to this sorry excuse of a repair shop.
I took in brand new, never worn, boots to the mentioned shoe repair shop for weather proofing. The following day, when i went to pick up the boots, they were returning them and the owner of the store pointed out how they could not get two small grease spots off. I expressed my dissatisfaction with this because the spots were not there before and i felt that i shouldnt have to pay for this terrible job that resulted in my boots being damaged. In front of another customer he was rude, yelling, saying i was accusing him of something and was irrationally uncompromising. He got compeltely defensive saying i was accusing him of doing it, and that i didnt see him do it. when OBVIOUSLY his store did the damage on the doots. He would not return the boots until i paid for them. Horrible customer service and a horrible job on a routine procedure that did not involve any grease of any sort. They did a sloppy job and for that i feel wronged, as a customer, for having to pay for it. WHY WOULD ANYONE GO TO SUCH A PERSON.
I’ve known of co-​workers that have had similar experiences and am apalled that a cleaning gets this guy 5 stars when he deserves NOTHING.

If you’re in the Union Square area and going to a concert at the Palladium, or meeting someone in Underbar and need a good shine on your boots, come to John’s, around 15^th St. and Irving Place. It’s all shoes all the time and I’m all in favor of supporting old, no frills places that do exactly what they say they will. Prices reasonable, expertise assured.