The whirr of sewing machines and light mist of the steam cleaner filled Ron Mancuso’s nearly 50-year-old shoe repair shop Thursday morning as he continued his family’s decades-old tradition: passing along the tricks of the trade.
Earlier this month, Latrobe resident Christine Marquis took the reins of Mancuso’s Shoe Repair, nestled at the corner of East Pittsburgh Street and South Pennsylvania Avenue in downtown Greensburg. She plans to continue Mancuso’s legacy.
“Really, nothing’s going to change,” said Marquis, 58, “because they’ve been doing something right. They’ve evolved over the years, so we’ll evolve. But I want to keep that small-business, personal experience with customers.”
Mancuso, 73, of Hempfield opened the store in 1977. Then-Mayor Bob Bell, whose son Robb Bell currently holds the office, encouraged him to lay roots in the city.
It was Mancuso’s grandfather who first brought the business to Western Pennsylvania, traveling from Italy to Pittsburgh’s Greenfield neighborhood in 1903.
When World War II broke out in 1939, Mancuso’s father and uncles left their beloved store to serve in the military. It reopened about 15 years later in a North Huntingdon shopping center before moving to Greengate Mall in 1970. The mall was demolished in 2005.
In the 1980s, Mancuso wasn’t so sure the veteran business would survive.
“There was a time in the early ’80s where Western-wear died overnight, and we were like a Western shop,” he said. “It turned all of our inventory — $40,000 to $50,000 worth of inventory — to $8,000.”
Expanding the business to women’s shoe repairs helped them get by, he said.
The shoe repair industry nationwide has taken a hit over the years, Mancuso said, as American apparel companies and buyers have tended toward cheap footwear made with lower-quality materials.
There used to be five shoe repair shops in Greensburg alone, he said. Now, there are just two servicing Westmoreland County.
“There’s no schools for it,” he said. “The only way you learn is the way I’m doing it. You have to teach it.”
‘I figured it was time’
Mancuso grew up in the industry, learning the ropes from his father at 13.
“My dad was the best,” he said. “God really blessed me to have a good father.”
The business’s history is steeped in the fabric of the Greensburg storefront — most notably through the century-old cast iron sewing machine Mancuso’s grandfather purchased in the early 1900s.
Last spring, Mancuso and his wife, Beverly, decided it was time to take a step back from the business.
“I really didn’t want to drop dead back here still fixing shoes,” he said. “Bev and I are going to be 74 here (in February). I figured it was time.”
Up until she started her apprenticeship six months ago, Marquis had no experience in shoe repair. She has spent the past decade in the nonprofit sector but often dreamed of running her own business.
“I’ve always wanted to own a small business,” she said. “I just didn’t know what it was going to be.”
Marquis met Beverly Mancuso about two years ago through the Greensburg Business and Professional Association.
“She always had all these ideas,” Beverly said.
That’s how the Mancusos knew Marquis was the right fit to continue the family business.
“She’s a people person,” Beverly said. “She loves the customers, and customers love to be pampered a little sometimes.”
‘I want to teach them the same way my father taught me’
The new job means more time with family for Marquis. Her husband, Dobie, is learning how to repair men’s shoes while her youngest daughter, Rory, a surgical vet tech, plans to create and repair leather accessories.
“I just knew the most important thing was I wanted something for my family, where we could wake up and all be together,” Marquis said. “I wanted to be able to wake up and be happy and go to work and we’re all still together. We don’t have to worry about running home to see each other.”
Marquis is a self-described locomotive, ready to carry on the Mancusos’ legacy.
“This is going to be my sole venture,” she said. “This is something I really want to do. I’m going to work really hard at it.”