Chuck Carlson puts his heart and soul into repairing and restoring soles as a professional cobbler.
He operates Fox Chapel Shoe Service in O’Hara, working seven days a week to meet customer demand for custom leather repairs on shoes, belts, accessories, luggage, hand bags and more.
The cobbler lifestyle is a family affair. Carlson co-owns the business with his wife, Sydney, who also serves as a seamstress. The couple will mark eight years in business in July.
They bought the already-established business, which had been around for 50-plus years, from Mike Palermo in 2018.
Their two young children often accompany them to work at their small shop in Fox Chapel Plaza along Freeport Road.
“I do, like, three guys’ jobs every day,” Chuck Carlson said. “There’s not a lot of us (cobblers) left.”
A typical day for Carlson is working behind the curtain while his wife handles the customers.
Repairs typically take about one week.
Customers hail from the Fox Chapel area but also include folks who live two or three hours away.
“Palermo kept the customer base going and everyone loved him,” Chuck Carlson said. “I’m a very organized person, and we just have the best customers.”
Original machinery came with the shop purchase, including a 1942 Landis stitching machine with 180 moving parts and a curved needle.
All of his machines were made in U.S., and his newest piece of machinery was made in 1948.
“They break down and, when they do, I have to fix them. That can really throw you off,” Chuck Carlson said.
Most of the material used in the repairs, including the leather, is imported from Italy and tanned in the U.S.
Sydney Carlson, the daughter of a seamstress, grew up in Fort Worth, Texas.
“We moved back here with no job prospects and decided to come to my hometown — somewhere where we both had roots,” Chuck Carlson said. “We knew Mike wanted to retire but didn’t want to close the business.”
Chuck Carlson apprenticed under Palermo for 18 months before taking over the business.
Sydney Carlson uses a 1941 German sewing machine to work alongside her husband repairing handbags, sewing and more.
“I grew up sewing on regular sewing machines — never a treadle machine — and there’s no motor,” she said.
Sometimes they have to be the bearer of bad news when they recognize a luxury item as fake.
“They say, ‘My boyfriend bought it for me,’ and I have to tell them,” she said.
Leather repair and restoration services offered include shoes, belts and boots and can include cleaning and treating leather, repairing belts, sole repair and replacement and shoe rebuilds.
The bulk of the shoes are women’s — many of them luxury brands — and there’s a lot of Louboutins coming through.
“I have to repaint the bottoms red. They want the bottoms red,” Chuck Carlson said.
The biggest professional shoe repair challenge is orthopedic shoes because the soles must be cut open by hand and then the orthopedics are put in.
One standout shoe repair, a rebuild, was a family heirloom pair of boots worn by a Confederate general.
“Customers are giving us their stuff they care so much about,” Chuck Carlson said. “We treat every pair of shoes with kid gloves.”
The Carlsons are thrilled to have a close-knit customer base and serve the Fox Chapel area and beyond.
“Everybody knows us, and it’s a really neat thing to be involved with the community,” Chuck Carlson said. “And we’re living our lives the way an American family would.”
Fox Chapel Shoe Service
Location: 1149 Freeport Road, Fox Chapel Plaza
Phone: 412-781-7339