Shoe repair business in Worcester finds new life
21.05.12
Rob Zaza, at 30 years old, is trying to make a go of it as a cobbler.
Youth and shoe repair are not usually paired together. Shoe repair shops are closing down, not getting new blood. Shoe repair is going the way of the dinosaur, like buggy whips and print newspapers. Right?
“It is a dying trade,” admitted Mr. Zaza this week, standing behind a counter with shoes — some repaired, some still waiting — crammed into every available crevice and piled on every available surface. “There aren’t a lot of younger guys who want to do it.”
He grew up in what he describes as a “throw-away culture.”
“We were brought up to throw things away,” he said. “We weren’t taught to fix or repair things.”
Last March, Mr. Zaza opened Central Shoe Repair of Worcester at 37 Mechanic St. in downtown Worcester. He took over from Paul F. Jennette Jr., who had run the shop for almost 30 years, and whose family — father, mother, grandfather, brother, uncle — had run the shop since
Source: Worcester Telegram