94-year-old retailer closes as longtime industry disappears

Some types of businesses simply fade away as the need for them disappears.

Americans of a certain age remember when video rental stores were in seemingly every shopping plaza. If you're a little older you probably also remember the days when television repair shops and even typewriter repair places were present in most towns.

Swampscott, Mass., the three square mile town I grew up in actually had three video rental places for much of my childhood.

We never had, as far as I remember, a typewriter or television repair shop, but there were more than a few of those in Lynn and Salem, two neighboring cities.

In 2026, the idea of renting a VHS tape in a store then having to return it (or face a late fee) seems absurd. It's a concept my 22-year-old son barely remembers, let alone anyone younger.

Video rental stores didn't disappear overnight, but gradually closed as streaming, led by Netflix, became the dominant format.

The same thing has been happening in another area, shoe repair. A type of store that was once a staple in most communities has been slowly disappearing and now, Eagle Shoe and Boot Company, a 94-year-old footwear store and shoe repair shop in Great Barrington, Mass. will close its doors forever on April 25, according to The Berkshire Edge.

That's the end of an era, and part of a broader trend of shoe repair shops closing.

Shoe repair shops have been disappearing

Jim McFarland, known as America's Cobbler, is the third generation in a line of cobblers that has run McFarland's Shoe Repair in Lakeland, Florida since 1918. He's the former president of the Shoe Service Institute of America and a Grand Silver Cup Award winner for excellence in shoe repair.

In 2022, he went on the Shoecast podcast to discuss the "disturbing decline in cobbler's shops in the US: from 120,000 in 1928 to around 3,500 today, the majority run by people rapidly approaching retirement age and without apprentices," according to Stichdown.com, which hosts the podcast.

"A lot of people say, oh, I hate this answer, because it's maybe part of it, but it's really not the biggest part. Oh, there's, you can buy shoes for less than you can repair them. Well, I mean, good luck," he said.

McFarland thinks that many people have let their footwear standards drop.

"If you're wearing those kinds of shoes, you know, go wear them, go buy them. Worst thing I see is a guy walk into a suit and he's got a $35 pair of plastic shoes on his feet. But anyway, a lot of shoes coming in from, you know, different parts of Asia and they're not worth repairing," he added.

The trend of the decline of shoe repair shops/cobblers has continued, according to a 2025 IBIS World report, Shoe Repair in the US Industry Data and Analysis.

"Shoe repair businesses are currently undergoing a period of contraction shaped by changing consumer habits and structural economic pressures. With fast fashion and inexpensive imports dominating the market, many consumers opt to replace shoes instead of repairing them, leaving traditional cobbler shops with declining demand," according to the IBIS World data.

It's a decline, but not a total collapse.

"This trend has been reinforced by reduced foot traffic in urban areas as remote and hybrid work arrangements persist. Simultaneously, online repair platforms and main-in models have grown popular, offering greater accessibility to customers but weakening physical store traffic," acccording to the data.

The industry has seen modest long-term growth, but that momentum is uneven.

"While revenue has grown at a CAGR of 3.9% to $315.6 million through 2025, despite an expected dip of 0.9% that year," the research firm said.

Eagle Shoe and Boot continues the trend

Barbara Kiriakedes, who co-owns Eagle Shoe and Boot with her husband Michael, told The Berkshire Edge that when the company opened, there were seven shoe repair shops in town.

"The reason why this shoe store survived back then was because Michael's buddy was a taxi cab driver, and he used to pick up and deliver shoes for him," she explained. "He was the only shoe repair shop that survived out of the seven during the depression."

Kiriakedes explained why shoe repair is disappearing and how her store has survived so long.

"Part of the problem is that you have to learn about shoe repairing from someone you know, usually a family member," she said. "This is not something that you can go to school for."

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She noted that diversifying Eagle Shoe and Boot helped keep the doors open.

"I'm not so sure the repair shop would have lasted this long if we had not started the retail part of it. The combination of the repair shop and the shoe shop helped us to pay our bills. If we just opened the repair shop way back when and didn't expand into retail, we probably would have closed a long time ago." she added.

Rising rents and a lack of apprentices are killing cobblers

New York used to be a hotbed for cobblers and shoe repair shops.

Across the city, experienced cobblers are closing the doors of their small businesses as they see their rents rise, potential customers buying new shoes rather than repairing old ones, and a dearth of apprentices interested in learning their trade, DNA Info reported.

"In the case of A.K. Shoe Repair, Albert P. says his landlord plans to more than double the monthly rent for his space at 350 E. 9th St. from $2,000 to $4,500. Adding that to the cost of electricity and gas, $500 a month, and the price of a month's supplies, $1,500, the price of keeping his business open would amount to roughly $270 a day," the local news site reported.

Another New York cobbler sees a lack of new talent as part of why the industry is disappearing.

"My generation of cobblers, they're not passing on [the trade]," said the cobbler who learned his craft from his father in Russia. "The future is not coming."

Related: Popular candy retail chain closing all its stores

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This story was originally published April 21, 2026 at 10:33 AM.