Whether it is out of passion, necessity or because of a certain reluctance towards “modernity”, diehards practice professions that seem to come from another era, not without bringing them up to date. Continuation of our series “Professions of yesteryear”. Today: the shoemaker.
On De Bourlamaque Avenue, in the Montcalm district of Quebec City, stands a shoe repair shop that stands out from the other surrounding buildings due to its colours and small size. Curious onlookers who approach the business will be surprised to learn that it is only open on Wednesdays and Thursdays, five months a year. Why? Because the demand is too high.
“The only limit is my own. I could work 100 hours a week and it wouldn’t be enough,” he explains. Duty the owner of the neighborhood shoe shop, Frédérick Lavoie. When he opens his doors, customers flock. “It’s not unusual for 100 or 125 people to come through. Every day I’m open, I can fill two to three weeks of work.”
A profession in decline
It was his uncle who passed on his passion to him. “He was the shoemaker in the town of Amqui. I started working with him in the evenings and on weekends when I was in 5th grade.e secondary school. » Frédérick then moved on to vocational training in shoemaking, formerly offered in Quebec City. In 2011, the program was abolished in the three educational organizations authorized to offer it. No registrations had been reported to the Ministry of Education since 2001-2002.
Frédérick notes that, since his beginnings, businesses have been closing and competition has disappeared, while demand has not slowed down. “When I started working in the field, I really wondered how I was going to make a living from it. There were a lot of shoe repair shops at the time. You really had to find your niche,” says the man who has since specialized in high-end repairs.
However, he deplores the lack of training and government incentives for his profession. “I am the last shoemaker in the Upper Town of Quebec. The closest one will be at the Laurier Quebec shopping center. […] It is quite exceptionally sad.”
A job from yesteryear, in tune with the times
For several years, Frédérick Lavoie has noticed that more young people are coming to have their shoes repaired, particularly out of ecological awareness. “It’s often advantageous to repair a shoe that you’ve spent a lot of money on. Of course, we’re going to make a few fewer cheap shoes,” he says.
To encourage this responsible consumption, Frédérick Lavoie suggests that we abolish taxes on repairs. “We already paid taxes on shoes when we bought them, we just want to repair them.” According to him, this type of measure could encourage new shoemakers to get started since the profession would be more valued.
Mentoring as hope for the next generation
The shoemaker trade is no longer taught in school. Even at the Centre des métiers du cuir de Montréal, they don’t offer repair classes. “When people are looking for training, we usually send them directly to shoemakers because they can learn the trade in the workshop,” says Marie Petit, assistant to the management and communications.
This is the professional path followed by Philippe Pilon Beaulac, the craftsman behind Cordonnerie 3R, which recently opened its doors in Trois-Rivières. He began his apprenticeship with master shoemaker Philippe Vernieuwe in 2014. Ten years later, he and his sister bought a business and opened their own shoe repair shop. “There are only three companies like ours in Trois-Rivières,” says Valérie Pilon Beaulac. “There is room for new shoemakers.”
The owner, also a professor of Fashion Marketing at Laflèche College, believes that their project is part of the era of responsible consumption. “I see students who arrive at the shoe repair shop with boots that they paid hundreds of dollars for. They no longer want to throw away, they are more aware of their ecological impact.” Even their business name Cordonnerie 3R refers to the rule of the three “Rs”: reduce, reuse, recycle.
Frédérick Lavoie is learning about these new shoe repair shops that are opening across the province. This gives him hope for a future for his profession. “Imagine that there are no more mechanics in Quebec. What happens? The car breaks down, we leave it on the side of the road. It will create chaos. On a small scale, in shoe repair, this is what we experience.” [S’il n’y a pas de relève]the shoes will go in the trash.