The number was sliced in half a decade later. Those in the business locally recall Wichita having nearly 40 shoe repair shops in the 1970s. More than 75,000 were still around in the 1950s. 'The government was rationing shoes, and there was a month wait time to get them fixed.'ДЄt the time, this country had about 120,000 shoe-repair shops, said Lipson, who is also on the board for the Shoe Service Institute of America, the industry's trade organization. 'My dad tells me stories of back in the Depression where shops had barrels of shoes waiting to be fixed,' said Randy Lipson, a third-generation shoe repairman who owns a shop in a St. Even if some of those ideas have been around for a very long time. Hard economic times can send consumers scurrying for fresh ideas to save money. If Rover chewed a hunk out of a shoe, there's a chance it can be fixed. 'I have to tell them, it's over.'Д«ut those $180 pair of Uggs can be cleaned for $30 to $35. 'Some people are reaching deep into the closet and bringing out stuff that probably should be thrown away,' he said. Central, said there are exceptions to what can be fixed. Richard Clark, owner of Advanced Shoe Repair, 6564 E. 'It's probably a little bit of both,' Woods said. But he noted that's also about the same time he moved six blocks east to be near a busy intersection. Harry, said his business has doubled over the past few months. Keith Woods, owner of Jack Smith Shoe Repair, 3114 E. 21st St.ДЄfter watching 'throwaways eat up the market' for years, Johnson said it's good to be busier. 'I'm seeing a lot of new customers looking to extend the life of their shoes,' said Charlie Johnson, owner of Sam's Shoe Repair, 1408 W.

Nothing outlandish, but an increase nonetheless. 'When you can get a pair of shoes fixed for $30 to $40 instead of buying a new pair for $150, it's not hard to figure it out.'ДЄll of Wichita's shoe repair shops are seeing an increase in work. 'Work has been picking up the last eight, 10 months,' said Roger Rollman, owner of Cowboy Boot Shop, 9434 W. While she has been a regular customer of shoe repair shops for years, Reynolds is increasingly being joined by others who had never stepped foot inside those businesses. 'You don't just throw things out if they can be fixed,' Reynolds said. But she knew they were high quality, so she took them to Wichita's Jack Smith Shoe Repair. Shoe repair shops do well in difficult timesДЄ few years ago an elderly man gave Hallie Reynolds' husband a pair ofshoes.

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