The Cobbler

Very personable and customer-​oriented!
Brought a handbag in to see what Dave could do to fix the edging on the straps that had worn away. I was so pleasantly surprised when he told me it would be much cheaper to do myself! So I bought Fiebings Edge Kote online and did — really made me feel good about their honesty and customer care. He also told me to at least bring in my boots… that’s not a DIY project. I brought 3 pairs of boots & shoes in the next week and thought they were all in really embarrassingly bad condition, but he said they were fine, just needed a little TLC. When I picked them up I was so happy how they turned out! These were shoes I was about ready to trash but loved too much and was trying to hold onto. Now I can — Thanks Dave!
**Cash Only!**

I’ve dropped off two pairs of shoes here so far. It takes about 4 days to get them back and the work is always of top quality. I have a bad habit of wearing my shoes down to the point where I had other cobblers tell me they were unsalvageable. But I brought it to The Cobbler and the guy fixed up my shoes so that they almost look brand new again! I will definitely be bringing my business back going forward.
The only con I can think of is that he only accepts cash — I never carry cash on me, but at least this place is right across the street from my bank so it’s not too much of an inconvenience.

He took my dusty burning man boots and restored it to a beautiful color and I wear them everywhere.

I can not say enough about my experience at The Cobbler. Dave and has staff are the epitome of customer service and exceptional work. I had previously brought in a pair of boots that were in dire need of repair to Third Avenue Shoe Repair (due to proximity to work) and the owner looked at it and said there was nothing he could do to fix them. Then he said, «I would be able to make them look decent at $ 60.) He gave such attitude and was appalled that I would wait so long to bring them in for repair. Needless to say, I walked out and glad I did…
Dave took one look and said he could definitely repair the boots. I just picked them up and the boots look brand new. I have since brought two pairs of high heeled shoes and he and his team again worked their magic.
If you’re looking for great craftsmanship at reasonable pricing, look no further! The Cobbler is your place!

My third time in this store over the years. Replaced the heels of my shoes before, his repair was average. But poor customer service with an attitude; doesn’t sound like he wants to help his customers at all. Unlikely to come back. Would not recommend this business at all.

Wish I had paid more attention to the reviews on Unilocal.Potential customers: best you stay away from this business! Dave is scary, and yes I agree he is NUTS and needs meds or an adjustment to whatever he is taking. I will not go into details but there have been several horrid experiences. 3 strikes & they’re out as a service provider for me: The Cobbler, you’ve lost yet another customer! I predict this business will no longer exist in several years. Enter at your own risk and best to always be accompanied with a witness!

Good price and nice results on the few pairs I have taken there

Brought one new sandal that came unstitched at a seam (four machine stitches) and they wouldn’t repair it because I only had one shoe. Told me to go home get the other shoe ! I don’t understand as these shoes were new and the other shoe was fine! Unreasonable since I was willing to pay for two shoes if it was a cost thing. There was no need for the other shoe as no matching was necessary. Your business your rules but totally ridiculous business decision on your part… Sorry not only do you lose my business but I will def direct locals away from your business too! Too many reasonable people looking for business!

I can’t tell you how disrespectful this man was to me when I came in trying to give him some business and see about getting my boots fixed.
It was so maddening, it became the inspiration for a blog post: (
)
I had an old pair of boots that didn’t fit around my calves anymore and I wanted to see about getting them stretched. He instructed me to put them on and before I could start to zip them up he says, «Stop right there. You are not going to be able to get those on. I can’t stretch them out, there’s no way.» I was a little disappointed, but I figured he knew what he was talking about, so I asked him, «Well, what would you suggest if I’m trying to buy boots that fit better?»
He says to me, «I suggest that you go to Big​Calves​.com». I looked at him in shock and said «Why would you say that to me?» and he said «You just have big calves, that’s the way it is.» and he looks away from me and starts talking to another customer.
If you’re reading this review and are thinking, «Lady… deal with it, you have big calves and that’s what you gotta do, you need big calves boots!»
Here’s the thing. Do I have bigger calves? Ya I guess. Did I come to terms with that critique of myself and go to
to see about buying some boots for my big calves? Yes I did. What happened when I went to

The website doesn’t even exist. Now THAT’S an insult.

This guy is great!
He’s «old-​school» and doesn’t like to deal with whinerz, but if you bring him a PAIR of shoes, he’ll fix you right-​up. I was in there today and he fixed a pair of my shoes in about 20 minutes and only charged me $ 20. They look like new.
Bring ca$h and bring BOTH shoes!

Look… I’m not an angry Unilocaler. I’m also not very thin-​skinned. It takes a lot to get my ire up. But, wow, did this place do it.
I came this morning to find a burst pipe in my bathroom. One of my beautiful, cherished, painfully-​expensive Frye boots got completely saturated. In a panic, I grabbed it and headed down to Laurel Street in search of some basic help. (Do I dry it in the sun? Do I need to rub some leather cream on it? etc.)
«What am I supposed to do with this?» the guy at the counter demands. «And where’s the other one? There’s a big sign on the door that says to bring both shoes in.» (For the record, it’s an 8.5″ x 11″, up among other fliers and signage, and I’m there because I clearly know zero about leather care or shoe repair.) He advices me to go soak the other one and I leave feeling like an ass for asking a professional for help. Awesome.
I leave and head down a few blocks to Country Shoe & Luggage, where the extremely kind proprietor pats me on the hand and says that while he can’t promise anything, he’ll do whatever he can. And that, The Cobbler, is how you treat a customer seeking your help.

I have taken shoes a few times to have them fixed (primarily new heal bottoms). Overall, a pretty good job — with one exception… cleaning of suede shoes. I had a pair cleaned in the past and they came back ruined (hard and stuff, no longer «soft»). Recently, I brought another pair of suede shoes to have the heals fixed and asked the owner to *not* clean the shoes, just fix the heal. He asked why and I explained what had happened previously. He then said he couldn’t fix my shoes since I was not happy with his service and asked me to leave the store. I was surprised, but thought it right to provide him the feedback. Bottom line, just don’t bring suede to this store. And be prepared to be asked to leave if you provide honest feedback.

I rarely write Unilocal reviews, but I felt compelled to write this one because I feel I owe it to potential customers and hope this can help the owner change.
First impressions of this guy are great. He seems friendly, outgoing, very confident in his craft, and feels like the neighborhood guy that has been around for years.
We brought him 5 pairs of my husband’s shoes to repair worn out heels, soles and some laces. He made it sound like the jobs were super easy and that he would have them done in no time. The total cost was much higher than expected, but since we live in the area, we like to support San Carlos small businesses. We left feeling good and expected him to do a wonderful job.
Boy, we were wrong! After we picked up the shoes, we realized one of the pairs had nails sticking up through the sole, poking through the inside of the shoe. It would have been extremely painful to have worn them. We also realized he didn’t replace the laces on another pair of shoes. We were surprised to find these mistakes, but gave this guy the benefit of the doubt… we assumed he would be happy to fix the errors. Instead, when we brought them back, he gave us a big attitude as if the errors were our fault and claimed he didn’t charge us for the laces. It felt so confrontational, that we just asked that he hammer down then nails so the shoes could be wearable and forget about the laces even though we paid for them.
Even after this exchange, I wasn’t planning on writing this review, until all of my husband’s «repaired» soles/​heels have already started to break apart again and it has only been 3 – 4 weeks since we picked them up! What a WASTE OF MONEY. I almost feel scammed. My entire family will be taking our business elsewhere from now on.

I brought in a pair of boots that needed heels and didn’t ask the price.(Last time I took them someplace else, it was $ 38, so I figured it would be about the same.) The Cobbler charged only $ 20, and they look great, all polished and clean. BEWARE — it’s cash only, so I had to run to the ATM really fast, but well worth it. Parking on Laurel St is hit and miss, which is annoying when you know you’ll only be ten minutes.

I’ve been taking my shoes here for two years. My husband and I trust them with our designer footwear and they do a great job.

I love Dave! He is so down to earth and hilarious! I just moved to the area and was looking for a good cobbler. I wandered into Dave’s store and figured I would get overcharged since he’s on Laurel and I just don’t know where else to go. Well, I dropped off my pricy lace Louboutins that I got for my wedding to have him fix the sole so I wouldn’t slip and not only did Dave do a fabulous job with it he even waterproofed it for me so I wouldn’t ruin it with an outdoor wedding!
I then brought him some cheap knock offs (real diamond-​covered Louboutins cost $ 5K) that I wanted to wear at the reception to help really sparkle. My cheap knock offs were so cheap the red sole peeled off before I even wore it. He fixed those as well and made them look real. And didn’t make me feel bad about it. He even joked about how it was smart not to buy $ 5K shoes for one night.
My now-husband’s patent leather tux shoes also needed some help– one fit perfectly and one was big. Dave put in some tongue pads that fixed the problem and didn’t even charge him.
After our wedding, I brought in my majorly abused lace shoes back (after going down a dirt path, taking pictures all over hay/​grass, and eating dinner on the lawn) and Dave charged just $ 6 to restore them back to their original glory so I can preserve them for life.
Amazing. If I trust this guy with my Louboutins (real ones, and even admittedly the fake ones), I know I can trust him with anything. THE BEST. My new cobbler.

Decent quality, sometimes hit or miss with the service.
I went to drop off a few pairs of shoes to have them re-​soled and sometimes he’s not very attentive. When I got my shoes back, two pairs turned out very nice but the soles on the boot started to fall off a few weeks after wearing them. And I didn’t go anywhere crazy, just walking about the city. The glue wasn’t applied correctly and it’s such a shame that I spent so much on something that was going to have to be fixed again. If you’re not super particular about your shoes, then this might be alright for the price, but for a high quality cobbler, you might have to keep looking.

Reasonable prices. Delivered on time. Straight forward and honest guy. Made me laugh out loud with something he said. My go-​to cobbler now.

I’ve brought in multiple pairs of heels to get the tips replaced and they always come back looking brand new. He takes pride in his work and he’s honest. Like other Unilocalers have said, if it’s not worth fixing, he’ll tell you. I brought him a pair with a broken heel and he took one look at them and could tell I only wore them a handful of times and told me to return them to the store because it was a defective shoe. He was also able to save my favorite pair of cork wedges by re gluing them. They look perfect!
He only accepts cash (maybe checks too but who pays with a check??) and you pay up front but I don’t blame him, I’m sure people leave their stuff there forever. I highly recommend him to anyone in need of shoe repair!

Thumbs up for the best service! I had come in once before to see if I could get a fake leather purse fixed, but the owner (Dave) was very sincere and said it would be a waste to try to fix it because it would just come apart again in the same place, so I appreciated his honesty.
This summer I bought a pair of leather boots while overseas and used them quite a bit. They were a mess when I got back. I thought of this place and how nice the guy was so I came back. THIS GUY KNOWS HIS STUFF! He explained to me exactly what kind of leather it was and what products he’d use to clean my boots. I came on a Monday and they were ready by Thursday. He explained to me how he lets them air dry and cleaned them with something that makes them impermeable so they should never get that dirty again. My boots looked BEAUTIFUL! I was so happy to see them like new again and it was only $ 10 for the cleaning. Dave is the man! He works with boots, heels, luggage, purses, pumps, etc. and his work is high quality and very affordable.