The Best Cobblers in New York

Cobbler Express, 1 New York Plz., concourse level; 917-691-7955

“My theory of good cobblers is that they are proximal to workplaces where fine shoes are worn,” says Vanity Fair executive editor Claire Howorth, who started going to third-generation cobbler Charlie Colletti when she worked at Time magazine in Brookfield Place (and when the shop was called Stanley’s Shoe Repair). In the eight years since, Colletti has rehabbed everything from Howorth’s “slumping snakeskin knee-highs and scuffed Prada platform penny loafers” to the $80 Ferragamos she found on the RealReal and needed stretched half a size. “I’ve been to a lot of cobblers in the past two decades,” she says, “and none has been as good or fast or reasonably priced” as Colletti, whose prices start at $40 for a heel or toe reinforcement. “Maybe one of those, but not all three.” Recently back in the office, Howorth decided to “zhuzh a ludicrous number of shoes” and took ten pairs to Colletti (who moved to his current location during the pandemic in 2021). A week later, he texted her to “bring one of those big canvas bags you always have,” so Howorth returned with a boat tote, which she says Colletti “filled with beautiful, shiny, newly wearable shoes.”

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Ask a Cobbler

Charlie Coletti, owner of Cobbler Express in the Financial District

Illustration: Pete Gamlen

When buying shoes, what should someone look for to avoid future repairs?
Well, I don’t know if you can avoid that. Anything you wear you’re gonna wear out. So the best thing is to buy a good-quality leather shoe that has a leather lining, one that’s stitched onto the shoe, not glued.

What’s the worst condition you’ve seen a shoe in?
Oh, forget it. Disaster. I mean, people just keep wearing shoes until the holes go through the whole thing. I’ve seen it all. I have a pair of high heels I’m working on now — a dog chewed the heel off. Pradas, if I’m not mistaken.

Is there a brand of shoes you’re partial to?
I wear Ferragamo. And I have some Bally shoes from years ago. Gucci is good, too.

Do you repair a lot of sneakers?
Sneakers are actually a problem for my business. Everybody wears sneakers, even people wearing suits to the office. You watch these sports reporters on television — they’re wearing a $3,000 suit with sneakers. We clean them, wash them, put new bottoms on. But it’s not a lot of my business.

What should people do to maintain their shoes?
They should put a protective bottom on, which is a thin rubber sole. That way, when it wears out, you just take it off and put another one on and the shoe always stays protected. And it’s always good to use cedar shoe trees and to have your shoes polished, because the wax and the conditioner of the cream maintains the leather and softens it.

— Katie Arnold-Ratliff

Hector’s Shoe Repair, 11 Greenwich Ave.; 212-727-1237

When shoe designer Nicole Saldaña worked as the head of design at Opening Ceremony, she was tasked with creating a custom look for rapper Mos Def that included a pair of penny loafers redone in stingray leather. “It’s very durable, but it has this texture kind of like glass, so it’s really hard to stitch,” Saldaña says. She took a pair of vintage loafers to Hector’s Shoe Repair, which she first stumbled upon 18 years ago as a Parsons student living around the corner, and owners Hector and John Sanchez rebuilt the uppers using the stingray hide Saldaña provided. “It was super-intricate work,” she says. “When they were done, it looked like a brand-new shoe.” Hector took three days to stitch the loafers (from $20), a quick turnaround Saldaña says is part of the service. “If you give them a timeline, they’ll definitely try to bend over backward to accommodate you.” Two years ago, when some boots from her own line came in a few shades lighter than expected, Saldaña took them to Hector’s; they returned hand-painted a deep tobacco color in under a week.

East Village Shoe Repair, 1073 Broadway, Bushwick; 347-835-8549

There’s a photo of Macaulay Culkin from 2002, around the time he did Party Monster, wearing a towering pair of striped black-and-white “flatform” skate sneakers, and it has “been embedded in my head since the 2010s, thanks to Tumblr,” says Michael Butterfield, who works in fashion wholesale and eventually found the same shoes on East Village Shoe Repair’s Instagram. After that, he sent a message to cobblers Boris Zuborev and Eugene Finkelberg, who have been making custom platforms since 1989, for celebrities including Madonna and Lil’ Kim, who wore a pair of their boots for a Mackage campaign in 2022. (The shop moved to Brooklyn in 2013 but kept its original name.) Butterfield brought in a pair of red Air Jordans and selected pieces of colored EVA foam (black and white, like Culkin’s) and his desired height for the finished shoe (4.5 inches). Three days later, Zuborev and Finkelberg had Butterfield’s newly striped flatform Jordans ready, for which he paid $225. “All kinds of people come up to me and ask, ‘Where the hell did you get those?’” he says. “I always tell them how comfortable they are.”

North 11th Shoe Repair, 103 N. 10th St., Williamsburg; 718-599-7463

A few years ago, editor and creative consultant Lynette Nylander found a pair of Marc Jacobs Pilgrim shoes from 2012 on Poshmark after looking for years. She took them to North 11th Shoe Repair (which, confusingly, sits on North 10th Street) for new soles and mentioned in passing to the owner that she wished the entire shoe were smooth black leather like the original runway pair. (Nylander’s came with a panel of ostrich leather.) “When I came back, he was like, ‘Oh hey, I figured out how to switch the leather to the smooth version you liked.’ And he only charged me $50,” Nylander says. “It was insane. I don’t know how he did it.” CC McGurr, owner of Le Grand Strip vintage store, often brings in designer pieces that need restoring before she can sell them and says the same. “I take really good stuff, like shoes that need new polish or the leather color restored, or a Gucci bag that needs the studs replaced,” she says (prices start at $25). One time, a customer bought a pair of 1960s leather T-strap sandals that broke; McGurr reimbursed them, then sent them to North 11th, “and they were able to completely reconstruct it,” she says. “They can really do miracles.”