Broadway Cobbler

Came by and place was closed DURING business hours posted. Yeah, it had a will return sign but seriously they need to consider to not do this during lunch hour. You just lost my business!

Flew in from NYC and needed a last minute repair in the town where my mom lives. This cobbler must have good reviews because he’s one of of two in this city. He was rude to my mom and couldn’t do a resole on Italian ballet slippers.
San Francisco isn’t too out of the way to avoid poor customer service and actual quality cobbling.

This shoe repair is awesome. The gentleman that is here he is good. Sometimes if the repair is simple he will do it right there on the same day. The price is decent.

I really wanted to like this place but my first experience was not pleasant. I have a pair of very old white leather high heel boots. I wanted them cleaned up and possibly have the top tapered to fit my calves better. The owner was very rude about my questions, stating that he does not do those things and I need to go elsewhere and all he can do is clean them. Simple, no sorry I don’t do that would have been fine. A week later I pick up my boots and they look exactly the same only now have pink stains on them?!? I’m assuming it rubbed off from whatever cloth he polished them with but I can’t get the stains out.

Quick service
Nice guy
Fair prices
Easy to talk too
Highly recommended
Great service
Clean office
Professional
I would come back

Hours — on two occasions, the place was closed during posted business hours. Not cool.
Customer service is not that great. Hate to say this, but the guy’s always kinda grumpy and nickels and dimes you.
Cash & check only.
Good quality work; hence 3 stars.

Great service! This is one of those gems you rarely hear about anymore these days, where the owner actually cares his customers and what he does. Charged a very fair price, even lower than on the phone, and he repaired my shoe on the spot. FYI, the shop only accepts cash and checks — I felt bad since I had exactly enough cash for what he asked, didn’t have any for a tip, since I’m so used to paying by credit card.

I’ve been back a few times to bring my shoes in for heel repair and polishing. The owner gets alot of return customers.

I took two pair of mens dress shoes to be resoled and rehealed two weeks ago. I go in today… 2 weeks later to pick up the shoes and the store owner is just sitting there like a lost some, doing NOTHING. and says he’s too busy and couldnt get around to repairing my shoes two weeks later. The total bill was going to be $ 125 to have the shoes repaired and apparently this guy doesnt need the work. Go elsewhere!!! DO NOT give this guy your business. He’s lazy and he’s incompetent.

Meh, I’m here on a Saturday at 10:45a to pick up my shoes, and the place isn’t opened yet. Posted hours today: 10 — 5.
I live in SF and will have to make a completely separate trip just to come pick my shoes up. Warning everyone — call first!

I have used the service of a local cobbler my entire life. No offense to anyone of them, but this is the best cobbler… ever. I bought a new pair of Red Wings — I was assuming they would last forever and would need some maintenance — four months later, new soles and the rest. Anyway, brought it into the shop. He is direct and very blunt about what he can and cannot do.
Before taking my shoes, he talked to me for a while — a really talkative and FRIENDLY gentleman!
Anyway, back to the service he provides. My soles were worn, the wood was chipped and looking ugly and the polish was iffy — at best. He was supposed to only fix the soles. He fixed the soles, painted my shoes, redid the damage on the bottom and polished them to brand new.
I, also, must argue that he brought my shoes up to BETTER THAN NEW condition. Absolutely shocked. When I get my shoes back, I was at a loss of words at how spectacular my shoes looked.
Additionally, he was direct in telling me about additional problems I will — eventually — have and he will be there to fix him.
Best experience ever and I will be coming to him for all my shoe needs.
He is absolutely the best. :)

Excellent service! The owner is no nonsense, tells you what he can do, and just does really good work. He dyed my wedding shoes (yes, people still do that) perfectly to the swatch I brought him. I appreciated that he took the time to tell me my different options on the slight variations of red tones. I’m really picky and I notice color things that the average person doesn’t. He did a beautiful job. He also did a top notch job on fixing my super old shoes that I thought I wouldn’t be able to wear again. I’ll be back for all my shoe fixing needs.

I have weird feet. Flat and wide, I have feet that feel better walking in heels than flats. So although I love shoes, I hate shopping for them. When I do find a great fitting pair, I like to keep them in the shape they came in… forever. Cheap or designer, as long as I still love ‘em I’ll spend the money to fix them up.
But having bad experiences in the past, where was I to bring my shoes with embarassingly lopsided heels and worn down soles? Thanks to great Unilocal reviews, I had the confidence to bring a pair of cheap boots, 1 pair of flats, and my much-​loved Ferragamo’s here. $ 15 for the cheapies, $ 25 for the Ferragamos… I thought he was gouging me on the cheapies, especially since he said all he was going to do was cut off the rubber heels and replace them. But I had no other options for a good cobbler and it was a one stop shop.
I was told to come back in one week. Came back in 9 days and he wasn’t done. I waited another 30 minutes for him to finish buffing, smoothing and brushing up the color on the leather. It was worth it. The heels of my cheap shoes no longer looked embarassingly lopsided — he had replaced the worn rubber heel with a higher quality one. My Ferragamo’s looked great too!
Super friendly and chatty guy who runs his own shop with no other help. Just be a little mindful and call ahead to check on the status of your shoes before you head over there. Definitely coming back here with my future shoe repair needs!

Ralph is the only cobbler I trust with my leather footwear. I started bringing my things to him about five years ago when I needed a new cobbler. The first job he performed was a leather resole and heel on a 1950’s pair of dress shoes I have, and within a few days I picked up what looked like a brand-​new pair of shoes, aside from normal crease marks. He discussed options with me, explained the process, and resoled and heeled the shoes with quality parts, did a wonderful job on the sole stitching, and polished the uppers to a mirror finish. I knew he was the person to go from then on.
Since then, he has repaired rubber soles on my dress shoes, polished shoes, and performed smaller jobs as they come up. Although he is always busy when I come in, he takes the time to stop what he’s doing and attend to my concerns. I once had the toe on the rubber sole on a new pair of dress shoes come apart on my way to work, and he quickly glued and clamped the sole back together. Within ten minutes of drying, I was on my way free of charge, although I insisted he take $ 10 for his time and generosity.
He also has a great selection of polishes, dies, shoe trees, laces, leather treatments, etc. for very reasonable prices compared to major retail stores. I was in his store once and saw him physically show a woman how to die her shoe uppers after he told her he would do so for a small fee but she said she would rather not spend the money and do it herself!
Some reviews on Unilocal berate Ralph for having a harsh attitude, but I urge people interested in having work done by him to not let this stop you and to consider all the circumstances that might lead up to his harsh attitude. Honestly, Ralph is a no-​nonsense man who wants to repair shoes and leather goods, period. I have been in there to purchase shoe polish or laces and witnessed the way people waste his time arguing about his opinion when he is in the right to turn away work beyond repair or charge a certain price for a certain repair. I find him incredibly honest to turn away a job instead of taking a customer’s money and further damaging the customer’s goods.
I highly recommend Ralph at Broadway Cobbler to anyone needing shoe repair.

fixed my leather boots for $ 3! he just glued on a piece that tore off. the Gino’s guy up the street wanted to charge me $ 6!
he had it ready the next day and when i came to pick it up we had a nice chat about war and his home countrys history. friendly old man! will be coming back here next time my shoe breaks.
the reason for the 4 star instead of 5 is because he isnt really consistent with business hours. id suggest calling ahead before driving down and looking for parking only to find the door locked during «business hours»

Stopped in here this morning because the high heels I was wearing for an important meeting had worn down to bare metal and made me sound like i was tap dancing. He fixed them for me while I waited, and polished them too. Very quick, friendly, professional.

Broadway Cobbler definitely seemed friendly at first. I took my boots to him to get new soles on the heels and to get a hole on the bottom edge of the leather patched.
He felt around a bit and said that the leather was too dry and would rip a larger hole if he tried to open up the sole. However, I had a hole patched just a few months ago in New York on the other boot, so I told him. He said they must’ve done it years ago before the leather was too dry. I asked if it was just the inner lining of the boot that felt dry. He said the leather was too dry and that I should just keep wearing the boot the way it was. So I asked him if I should condition the leather, and he said it’s too late, I should’ve done it a long time ago.
I asked if there was absolutely nothing he could do. Seriously? Are you telling me there is NOTHING I can do? :/​He then became incredibly frustrated and hostile and said, «You don’t believe me. That’s fine. I already told you, the leather is too dry. You’re not listening to me!» Of course I don’t believe you! Someone patched my other boot just recently and didn’t have any problem.
He was being a huge jerk, so I just told him to have a nice day and I left. The next day, I brought my boots to another shoe repair place in San Francisco, and they said it’d be no problem to fix the boot. And they did!
Unfortunately, I can’t speak to the workmanship since he refused to actually do the work.

Finally got off my lazy butt and replaced the the plastic tips on my heels.
No more «clippty-​clop, clippity-​clop»: sounding like a horse while walking around.
Metal hitting the sidewalk is not a pleasant sound.
I guess I just wrote a little shoe poem.
This place is great. The owner is very nice and straightforoward, and as the other Unilocalers said, will honestly tell you whether something can be repaired or not.

Great place if you want quality work at inexpensive prices! Last time I brought in five pairs of designer shoes to be worked on (heel tips replaced, Vibrams added, shoes polished, etc) and it cost me $ 80 for all five to look like new. At most other shops in the peninsula I’d pay double his prices. Downside is that, as mentioned in another review, he can take longer than his estimated time. I came on the day he said they’d be done and he hadnt finished them yet so he told me to come back in an hour. I waited around, but they weren’t done until another hour after that because he got too busy to finish them. Next time I will call before I leave my house to make sure they are ready before I go.

The best shoe repair shop, ever. The owner, or Mr. Cobbler is friendly, honest, and extremely knowledgeable. First time in, I brought in my shoes after hours, and he was nice enough to stay for me. He assessed my shoes and gave me a range of options. He even honestly told me that I could just buy cheaper inserts from the Walgreens. He also told me some tips on how to fix the problems I had with my shoes and sorted out a better option for me elsewhere.
Seriously, he just spent 20 minutes helping me out, let me try out the products he had on the shelf, and didn’t mind at all when I didn’t end up get anything I need there.
I just dropped off some shoes for him today, and I can’t wait to see how they’ll come out brand new again! Very affordable pricing, and superb service. I highly recommend Broadway Cobbler!