Martinez Shoe Repairman Doesn't Want To Be Industry's Sole Survivor

MARTINEZ (KCBS) - Pablo Martinez decided to transform his downtown cobblers shop into a non-profit school that offers soul salvation for young people in trouble and preserves a craftsman's dying trade.

The Carlos Cobbler School, named for Martinez's stepfather Carlos Casteriano, now teaches just two foster kids how to use vintage sewing and stitching machines to produce time-honored craftsmanship.

Soon he hopes to have 50 students. Meanwhile jobs for the young apprentices are already waiting at shoe repair shops all over the country.

"We don't even have the kids in here yet and we already have jobs for them, which is really cool," he boasted. "Not too many programs can say that."

KCBS' Doug Sovern Reports:

Sixty years ago, there were 70,000 cobblers in the United States. Nearly all of them have gone out of business. Martinez estimates that only 7,000 remain.

"We're in a disappearing mode. Within the next 10 years, if we don't do anything drastic, we could very well disappear," he said.

The shop at 825 Ferry Street in Martinez still serves thousands of customers every year.

But where Martinez and his brothers learned the trade from their father and stepfather, now most cobblers' kids go off to college to pursue other careers in a modern, disposable society that is less interested in maintaining and repairing old shoes.

"I know the economy needs you to go out and buy stuff. But you know, I think repairing is good," Martinez said.

That could explain why today's generation gets excited for the seven months of apprentice training in how to properly sew, stitch, hammer and buff once they've tried it out just a little.

Martinez said the reaction is typically, "Like wow, I didn't know you could fix this. I didn't know you could fix that."

His first pupil, an artist named Sally Rodriguez, traced her interest in grinding soles to a renaissance of people wanting to work with recycled goods.

"You actually start looking at your clothes, shoes—things you just sort of take for granted—in a different way. It gives you a sense of ownership," she said.

The boots she wore as the painted a mural at the new school, for example, had been taken apart and resoled by her own hands. She even did some grinding.

"It's harder than it looks," Rodriguez said.

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