Avila’s Shoe Repair & Boot Service

I’ve repaired several pairs of shoes here – resoled two pairs of boots and fixed leather straps on two pairs of Dansko sandals. Each time, the work was well done, the prices were affordable, and the job was done when they said it would be done.
It’s a small family-​run shop, so don’t expect anything fancy. Just solid, consistent work at decent prices.

I’ve been here twice and both experiences were good — not fabulous or surprising, but reliable and timely, and I received good quality for what I paid.
A no-​frills kind of place. Cluttered on the inside, and the owners don’t speak a ton of English, but they seem hard working and honest, and they run a great little shop.
1^st time was earlier this spring (sorry, details are fuzzy) — replaced the worn out heels on a pair of Frye boots that are otherwise in great condition. I *think* it was about a 3 day turnaround and I had to pay half of total upfront, like a deposit. Believe it was $ 20 a piece and the boots came back shiny with sturdy new heels.
2^nd time was today — needed additional holes punched in the heel straps of a pair of Frye sandals because I apparently have narrow heels. Getting this done took maybe 3 minutes, and cost $ 2. Two dollars. And now my sandals fit perfectly.
I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this place for shoe repairs or shines!

NEW: ok… so i’m a customer service snob. i debated two or three stars… and although i’m not thrilled with the fix of my shoes, i noticed that he cleaned and shined them up for me. so i opted for the extra star. the couple was nice when i went to drop off my shoes, but seemed very flustered when i came to pick them up, taking awhile locating my shoes.
anyways, i used to visit a shoe cobbler two-​three times a week for over 14 years and know what can and can’t be done… my request wasn’t unreasonable. he fixed them but really half-assedly…when i gave him a suggestion (not a direction, because i didn’t want to offend him), he got a bit defensive. i expressed my discontent for the fix and they both just brushed me off…
they weren’t terrible but i paid for a specific fix to be made and while he did the job… he didn’t do it well and i just don’t feel like i got what i paid for. so… looks like the search for my shoe guy continues…
OLD: my first shoe cobbler in philadelphia. at one point in my life, i had over 100 pairs of shoes and a really great shoe guy in ca. this place was recommended to me by my boss and they’re not too far from work, so i decided to give them a try.
my naughty pup got to my favorite oxfords and i need the heels fixed. the prices seem fair and i will update once i go pick up my shoes… but so far so good.

Finally! This is a great alternative to Superior since he is closing shop! I do not trust many folks with my shoes (ferragamo, Bruno magli, metzlan you get the ideA). I wear my shoes hard and it shows but this place just brought two of my favorite most beat up pairs back to life! Prices are reasonable and they take credit cards which is a plus! Look no further they do a great job!

Friendly pop and mom shop that does a superior and rapid job on both shoe and boot repairs, as well as makes excellent key copies. I brought my beloved and much worn favorite leather boots and they did an excellent job of bringing them back to life, with new soles. Prices are reasonable, especially for the Rittenhouse area, and the high quality work & excellent customer service keeps me coming back .
FYI — new name is «Guaraciela’s «SHoe repair.

This place is now called Guaricela’s Shoe Repair, at the corner of 15^th and Spruce.
They did an amazing job rehabilitating my leather boots. I had one pair that had a massive hole in the heel not in the sole, in the heel. They patched the holes and replaced the sole. You can tell its a patch job, but the color is spot on and it looks amazing.
I also had a new heel put on black leather spots that had salts stains, those shoes seriously look brand new. I wish had before and after pictures
It cost me $ 45 for BOTH pairs. Great work and great price.

I brought in a leather bag to repair and restitch the shoulder strap. It turns out they simply glued it back together subsequently broke a month later. I’m getting it restitched as was supposed to happen somewhere else. Furthermore when I first got it back there were black stains on the gray leather and he argued that it wasn’t their fault and grudgingly cleaned it, when it was perfectly clean before I brought it in. Upsetting and not worth the money!

Now called Guaricelas Shoe Repair. A great shoe repair shop — for fixing your heels and soles that need a little love. They also make great key copies. Owned and run by a really sweet husband and wife team. My go to place for shoe repair and key copies. Love to support the small, local owned business, and these folks make it a good, pleasant experience as well.

This establishment simply sucks.
I’ve had a few pairs of shoes repaired here over the years and always thought the repair was mediocre at best. Yet, I still continued to go because of the convenient location and speedy service.
Last week I went to pick up a pair of boots that needed a simple sole repair. When I went to pick them up there was a NEW hole in the front of one of the boots. It was clearly done during the repair, as it looked like the grinder was held on the sole for too long and burned through it to the leather.
When I sweetly mentioned it to the owner, he became argumentative and told me it that the hole was from my own wear. (NO-​no, it wasn’t actually. If I had made the hole myself, then why wouldn’t it have been repaired already when you repaired them???) He refused to fix it unless I paid an additional $ 25. Are you kidding me?! Then when I replied that I would not be paying $ 25 to repair the hole (that I did not make) and reached to take my boot back he grasped it harder and would not give it back! I practically had to wrestle him for it.
I will not be going back and hope others do not have to deal with the same poor repair and rude service that I did.
This guy just simply speeds through the repairs using the cheapest materials and practices very poor craftsmanship.
NEVER AGAIN!

I have an extremely loved pair of leather riding boots that I’ve been white-​knuckling for years. The zipper on the left boot started giving me trouble at the airport in San Francisco (couldn’t get them off to go through security), and broke completely a couple of months later. I’ve never had shoes repaired before, but I just couldn’t bear to part with these.
The woman at Avila’s said that it would cost $ 40 to replace the zipper, which seemed steep compared with prices quoted in the other reviews. I had to put down a $ 20 deposit and she gave me a tiny manilla ticket. Don’t lose your ticket!!!
When I returned in a week to pick up my boot without my ticket, they tried to search for my name and phone number and found nothing. The woman shrugged a sorry and sent me away bootless.
I returned in another week, having found the tiny manilla ticket in my apartment (in the other boot, duh). This time an older man was working. He took my ticket and dug through the back for 15 minutes to no avail. He took a description of the boot and my phone number and said that he would look until he found it. He was really very nice. But I was still pretty annoyed that I was going to have to come back a third time to try to get my boot back.
The man did call me later that day, and I returned to pick up the boot. This time the woman was there again. I handed her the ticket and said that I’d gotten a call that they found the boot. She went in the back, grabbed a plastic bag, and clunked it on the counter. When I checked, my boot was in fact inside. All the woman had to say to me was «twenty dollars.» So I paid her and left.
The boot now has a working zipper, which is nice. It’s a cheaper, larger zipper than the original, which was metal with a bronze-​colored fob. This one is brown plastic. I don’t think it’s that noticeable, but for $ 40 I expected better materials. Also, the once scuffed and battered boot is now polished to a high shine… which would be better if the other one weren’t still scuffed and battered.
If I decide to seek professional assistance in evening out the polish of the boots, I will go elsewhere.

Great prices and nice people. Took my shoes in for new heels ($ 12) and they came back polished and with the toes touched up, too! I’ve been several times — highly recommend.

I brought in 2 pairs of Frye boots for repair, one black and one grey. The heels of the black pair were TORE UP. Like down to the nubs, chunks of wood missing. Avila’s repaired the heel beautifully and shined & polished the boots. They look like new! Actually, even shinier than when they were new.
They also fixed the heel on the grey pair, but the scuffs & scratches on the front of the boot are still visible. I’ve been told by other shoe repair places that because of the color, it’s hard to match up and polish out the scratches. Oh well, they look a hell of a lot better than they did a few weeks ago. The total bill was $ 36 and the boots were ready in about a week. No complaints! I’ll be back with more of my busted ass boots.

After having had a bad experience at Villa’s shoe repair off Rittenhouse, I was a bit nervous about bringing my expensive boots here, but I had a fantastic experience. They did a great job of resoling my worn down Frye boots and re-​doing the heel that I had worn down to the wooden nub. I had 2 boots resoled and the heels redone for $ 100 bucks, which I didn’t find to be terribly bad. The quality of the sole that they put on seemed to be really good (unlike the plastic-​y one I got from Villa) and said ‘made in Italy’ on the bottom which made me feel better about the quality. They were also pretty fast, and redid the 2 boots in 6 days. I will definitely be back to get other boots repaired!

after an annoying back and forth with superior over a broken zipper on my doc marten boot, i finally took the boot to avila’s. they were kind, confident and said they would charge me just 35 bucks to replace the entire zipper on a knee high boot. my boot was ready in just under a week, and as good as it gets. i was stoked. thanks, fellas!

I took 3 pairs of shoes to get new heels and a pair of boots for new soles and it only cost me $ 60!!! All my shoes came back perfect and nicely polished. I would highly recommend Avila’s!

Took a brand new pair of Kenneth Coles in there to have the heels adjusted — cheaper to do that than have all my trousers tailored. $ 15 and a few days later, they were perfect.

I took my beloved Birkenstocks here to finally get the soles replaced after three years or so of heavy (and heady) use. Being away from them while they were being repaired was a very dark time in my life. But, $ 60 and a couple weeks* later, they came back as good as new. Reunited and it feels so good.
* The original quote was a week but they had difficulty ordering the sole in my size. Instead of letting me walk in on the day they had told me the repair would be finished and finding out then, they called me ahead of time to break the bad news to me. I really appreciate that.

I totally agree with Nora (had to do 5 stars though), this place is the best place in the city to bring your shoe issues. Brought my Prada (bought when I had expendable cash) boots in with some serious sole issues. They fixed the bottoms beautifully and did the whole polish thing as well! An unbelievable job. Thanks guys.

Between our growing landfills and our shrinking economy, I’ve been starting to make my old shoes new again at Guaricela’s. For $ 8-​$ 12 dollars, they’ll put fresh heels on my otherwise-​perfect shoes. And the shoes will be polished, and (could it be??) smelling better. Definitely a fabulous investment for those pricey and/​or took-​me-​forever-​to-​find pairs. They ask for a small deposit when the shoes are dropped off, and then it takes just a couple of days. Polishes of all colors of the rainbow, and other shoe accessories are for sale — and they make keys, too.