Romano's shop has firm footingFriday, October 15, 2010
BY CHARLES ERICKSON
Hackensack Chronicle
CORRESPONDENT
HACKENSACK — Joseph Romano, the J in S & J Shoe Repair, learned his trade in a shop on Main Street in Hackensack more than 50 years ago. His tutor shared the same last name but this Romano was no relation.
"In my industry, as the people die off, there’s nobody to replace them," Romano said. "We’re getting scarcer and scarcer."
Romano and his wife, Sandra – she is the S in the company’s name – opened S & J Shoe Repair on Anderson Street in 1964. In 1986 they moved to 80-A Anderson, a larger building they own.
A son, Joseph Jr., holds equity in the family firm and is the third employee.
Joseph and Sandra Romano opened S & J Shoe Repair on Anderson St. in 1964. Their son, Joseph Jr., now works there. The economic recession has brought them more business. Business has been good. "Especially with the way the economy is now, people, instead of throwing things away, are thinking twice and getting it repaired," the senior Romano said.
Romano believes many of his contemporaries don’t know how to fix modern shoes, many of which are not easily repairable.
"They’re specialized. They’re molded," he said. "You really have to use four or five different kinds of cement, and different kinds of chemicals to adhere them together."
Anderson Street in 1964 contained many stores that sold antiques. The people entering them wore better shoes, as did most people in the other parts of Hackensack and the rest of the country. Footwear was a big domestic industry, and shoes typically were discarded only after they could not be salvaged. Shoe-repair stores were common enterprises.
The repair store’s proprietors own their building, which helps keep overhead low. "They forced us into a throwaway society, which also threw away out jobs," Romano said about the tendency of replacing worn merchandise with a new example. "I don’t know if the technology helped us so much."
The son, Joseph Jr., found a small pair of hippie-style sandals, produced for him by his father decades ago. They were popular items during the late 1960s.
"Oh, I made a lot of those," the elder Romano said. He once fabricated a pair of shoes for a basset hound to wear when his owner took him on hunting expeditions in the woods.
Joseph Jr., still holding his youth sandals, expressed a belief that there is a good future in this business. But he wishes people in the U.S. viewed their services similarly to consumers in the Old World.
"Shoe-repair in Europe is like a dry cleaner in America," he said. "Where everybody here uses a dry cleaner, everybody uses shoe-repair."
Fixing shoes brings in the largest segment of revenues, but repairs are also made to pieces of luggage, pocketbooks and baseball gloves. The Romanos do various orthopedic modifications to footwear, including installing elevations for people having one leg that’s shorter than the other, and enlarging shoes so that a brace will fit into them.
Other than the shop’s finisher, which is a modern device, much of the tooling is elderly. A black stitching machine, made by Singer, was built 75 years ago. It does not have seniority on the asset list.
"That Champion is over a hundred years old," the older Romano said, pointing to a stitching machine whose metals are painted pea-green and which stands near a wall. "It still works great, and they still have parts for it."
The price for a new set of heels and soles applied to a man’s shoe at S & J is around $50. If the shoes cost $200-$300 new, the repair work is justified.
"And then you have a brand-new shoe," Romano said.
Work on women’s shoes normally involves heel replacement, and costs about $10.
The Romanos frequently turn away trade. They tell potential patrons it is economically nonsensical to fix cheap shoes instead of buying a new pair. Much of this budget footwear comes from the two-for-one deals offered by national chains.
Queries about repairs to boat covers are also answered with a declination.
"I’d rather do quality work than volume," Romano said.
There are other enterprises in Bergen County that repair shoes, but there are fewer than 10 years ago.
"In our industry today, we’re so scarce," Romano said, "there’s plenty of work for everybody."
Romano picked up a bluish hockey skate from a shelf in the back of the store. "He ripped out the eyelet," he said of the owner. "So I replaced that, and then I’m backing the tongues."
S & J also services the types of skates used by figure skaters. This includes building up the soles so that the blades are at an angle.
"This year we saw them on TV," Romano said. "A few of the couples that were in the Olympics. We worked on their skates."
S & J Shoe Repair, 80-A Anderson Street, Hackensack, (201) 343-7868; Owners: Joseph, Sandra and Joseph Romano, Jr.; Hours: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday, 8 AM – 6 PM; Saturday, 8 AM – 3:30 PM; Closed Wednesday
