Brogues

Brogues have been the longstanding go to guys to re-​heel my Loblan cowboy boots. I am always admonished by the guy at the grinder for leaving it so long between each visit.
My pride and joy of footwear will usually take about 5 days to be sorted out and a full heel rebuild and sole replace usually costs me about £40. Now seeing as the boots are only £120, this may seem excessive. However, anyone who has owned a pair of cowboy boots will understand that the breaking in period is akin to hell of feet! This means that getting them properly soled to good as new standard is always well worth the outlay.
They also cut keys and sell your expected range of shoe care products. It’s a proper craftsman guys in overalls with grease kind off place, but that just makes it all the more authentic in my mind.

As part of my current cross town rampage of Cobbler comparing I visited Brogues shoe repair today. The shoes that I took in were a pair of size two, brown leather, boxy shaped things belonging to my girlfriend. I was a little embraced to hand them over at first as they were now so worn out at the heel that there was a hole that you could have slotted a penny through. The young man at the counter took a look at them and rather than immediately write them off, as I was expecting, he took them to an older chap at the back of the shop. There was some muttering and a feared the worst.
I looked at my own boots and tried to shake off the feeling that I was making a total fool of myself, when the older chap came up to the counter and asked in the normal slightly gruff cobbler’s way if I wanted just the heel done or the whole sole. I asked for the whole sole and he said they would be ready on Monday. No sucking through the teeth or unming and aring, just «they’ll be done Monday, you can pay when you pick ‘em up». Not only was the service quick and straight forward but the repair is only going to set me back twenty five pounds.

Not to undermine the art and craft of key cutting, but I after seeing it done once before I bet I could do it!
Unfortunately I don’t have the machinery for this (yet) so I will continue to use the guy from Brogues, who knocks them out in a matter of seconds and charges less than £3-​I think around £2.80 last time I was in there.
A little bit of persuasive selling from the shop keep and I most certainly would of taken a glow in the dark version.

Brogues shoe repair is a really useful local shop. They engrave pet tags and cut keys as well as shoe repair, in addition to selling a variety of practical little items that you can’t pick up in the supermarket, like insoles and specialist leather cleaners and treatments. I have taken several pairs of shoes and boots to Brogues and they have always repaired them within a few days (by comparison, I waited weeks for the one pair of shoes I foolishly committed to a chain shoe repairer). They didn’t even sniff at the state of my boots when I took them in the once inch high heels had worn almost flat, unevenly and through the wood, and they built them back up again overnight and only charged me £10. Having your old friends repaired is not only cheaper than a new pair of boots, it’s greener as well and you even feel like you’re supporting something of a heritage craft. All the machines and the torturous-​looking tools really captured my interest. Luckily, the Brogues staff didn’t think I was weird for wanting to stay and watch…

In my attempt to kill two birds with one stone, I decided that it was about time to repair my dingy Hush Puppies, and to get another set of keys for my flat.
Key cutting? Fantastic. With key cutting, the only negative would be that the keys just won’t fit into the lock. But the odds of that happening are slim. And, especially with experts such as these, the odds of that happening are nil.
Shop repair? Fantastic as well. I guess I don’t lift my feet up too high when I walk, as I find myself tripping over the tiniest elevation of concrete. This forced wear and tear to the top of my Hush Puppies, and it seemed as though it was time to buy new ones. But rather than buy new ones, I thought it might be a better alternative to get them repaired. It was a good thing that idea popped into my head, as my shoes are like new. These men just do a fantastic job, and they save you a whole lot of money as well.

I like the name of this place, a) because I’m a fan of brogues and b) because it brings to mind a dashing ‘40s man in a well-​made three-​piece suit and a pair of shiny brogues. And inside you’ll find a couple of older gentleman who could quite easily have been that dashing man… ok, that would make them at least a hundred years old, but you catch my drift. There’s an air of dignified tradition about the place and it’s good to see people still practicing a skill.
I’ve always liked cobblers– I like to get my shoes repaired, rather than run out and buy new ones. In fact, since I often buy secondhand shoes that need a lift, I’m a regular at Brogues. And the bottom line is, they do a fantastic job! I recently spent £13 getting two pairs of my favourite leather boots re-​heeled, and the results were top notch. When I picked the boots up, I found that the guy had cleaned the heels and smoothed down the scuffed leather, so that they looked as good as new. Why buy new boots with a cobbler as good as this in town?!
p. s. As well as repairing shoes, they also cut keys!