Church's Shoe Repair/Refurbishment Advice

[ec1]

I have a pair of shoes from Church's which need resoling. I've unfortunately worn the leather soles down to the point there's a hole right in the centre.

I checked online and Church charge £290 now plus postage to repair these!

https://www.church-footwear.com/gb/en/the-guide/repairs.html

I'm absolutely shocked by this price - especially as that price will go a long way to a new pair Crockett & Jones. Is there any difference between getting them resoled via Church's or sending them to say Koko in London to get repaired? The latter charges £165.

 

[CottonTownBoy]

OEM factory repair prices have been rising alarmingly over the last 10 years. I used to send mine back to Loakes but the prices rose too much for me to stomach.
I don't know whereabouts in the UK you are based but there are London prices and the rest of the UK prices.
Youtube is a good source, as you can view their work and prices. Cobbler Dan at Tring Shoe Repairs has a good Youtube channel to showcase his work and his prices are good. All decent cobblers do mail order now.

 

[ec1]

Appreciate the response. They say they will reshape the upper sole on the same last and re-welt the shoe. Is this particularly special stuff which only they can do?

 

[CottonTownBoy]

For £290, I would expect a lot. However, if you watch some of these cobbler videos, if it's just a simple re-sole then they will use the existing welt to stitch the new soles onto. New welts are only fitted in very extreme cases and a cobbler can fit a new welt. I've never needed a new welt and re-shaped over the existing last.

 

[ec1]

So essentially all this is rubbish:

https://www.church-footwear.com/gb/en/the-guide/repairs.html

Unlike most repairers, we don’t just resole and re-heel your shoes. In most cases each shoe will be stripped back to the upper and insole, meaning that out of the 250 process required to create a CHURCH’S Goodyear shoe, 60 of these will be completed during a repair.

Due to the level of workmanship involved, the process can take up to 12 weeks. This may sound like a long time but a CHURCH’S repair is ultimately a bespoke process: the exact repair requirements will depend on the condition of each part of the shoe, which will vary from one pair to the next. Many of the processes involved in creating our shoes would, in production, be completed on a machine but during a repair must be handworked. A typical repair will cover any or all of the following:

• Initial assessment
• Stripping of the shoe to the upper and insole
• Reshaping of the upper on the same last
• Re-welting and resoling
• Heel replacement
• Adding a new heel and sock pad
• Adding a new insole if necessary
• Clean and polish
• Relacing with replacement laces
• Repackaging with new box and shoe bags

 

[JFWR]

You absolutely don't want to remove a welt from a shoe that does not need a welt repair. The welt is the reason goodyear welted shoes can be repaired, because you are not connecting the outsoles to the uppers (and therefore destroying their integrity) but to the welt, wihch is separate.

Most cobblers I know have said you can rewelt a GYW shoe about 3 times before the leather just becomes too holey to hold on to, and you'd have to put the welt in a different place, which means you'd basically screw up the shoe's sizing at that point, so you'd not have the same shoe back; however, if you don't replace the welt, then you can keep on resoling for a good amount of time.

I'd imagine you can probably resole a GYW shoe about 10 times at least if you only rewelt every third or fourth time. Probably even longer.

But yes, 290 dollars is stupid. A resole should cost you about 125, though with inflation, expect that to be 150 nowadays.

 

[breakaway01]

Only Church’s will have the factory lasts for your shoe. Anyone else will be using an approximation. There is a small risk that the shape of the shoe will change if someone else resoles it, but it is not IMO a very significant risk. As others have said, most Goodyear welted shoes do not need a new welt with the first resoling.

Note that if you have your shoes resoled elsewhere, Church's may not accept your shoes for any future repairs. But this probably won't matter unless you are very, very attached to this particular pair of shoes.