A man walks in carrying a couple of bags crammed with several pairs of scuffed shoes. Just clean them all up, he says. He`ll pick them up in a couple of days.
A woman brings in a pair of shoes to be resoled. The man behind the counter notices that the zipper on her purse is broken. ”Why don`t you leave that too, we`ll fix it,” he says. He gives her a shopping bag, she empties her pocketbook into it, and leaves minus shoes and purse. They`ll be good as new when she returns.
United Parcel Service arrives to pick up a couple of dozen packages of repaired shoes. They`ll be sent to customers whose addresses are all over the country, including Hawaii.
This is Brooks Shoe Service, a creme de la creme shoe repair business that operates out of a third-floor store in the Pittsfield Building, 55 E. Washington St., across the street from Marshall Field`s.
1,000 repairs a week
In any given week, up to 1,000 shoes, boots, purses, briefcases and similar items get repaired or revitalized in this 2,000-square-foot space, which consists of a front room (lined with newly repaired items) and a factory where the repairs are done.
”We dote on our customers, we spoil them,” says owner Michael Morelli, 33, who took over the business from his father in 1987. ”We do what I call a `no-compromise` job. When I fix your shoes, they don`t look fixed. They look like they never wore out. If they don`t look as nice as when you got them, then you haven`t saved any money (by having them repaired instead of buying new shoes).”
Brooks was started sometime in the 1930s by an Englishman-”as far as we know,” Morelli says. Anthony Morelli, Michael`s father, bought the business in 1979, becoming the fifth owner.
”My dad grew up repairing shoes, that`s his thing. That`s what he loves. My grandfather had a shoe repair shop on South Water Street, and my father was working there when he was 12,” Morelli said.
Morelli didn`t at first intend to follow in his father`s shoe repair footsteps. He became an airplane mechanic in the early 1980s, ”but it was the wrong time. There were tons of guys being laid off, seniority was what counted and I didn`t have any. I had about four jobs . . . then my father needed some help so I went there.”
The elder Morelli wanted his son to help until he could sell Brooks and retire. ”But I saw almost right away that it was just too good of a business to sell. And I really like it, it`s easy to have a high degree of satisfaction when you`re working for yourself. So we worked out a deal where I became owner in 1987.”
Tradition, quality live on
The Morelli family has continued the reputation for quality that previous Brooks owners began. Many customers now are third generation. That longtime reputation, plus word-of-mouth and loyal customers are reasons why Morelli now receives shoes-in-need-of-help from all over the country. People move away but when they`ve had a good thing, they want to keep it.
About one-third of Brooks` business comes from department stores, including Marshall Field`s, Neiman Marcus, Saks Fifth Avenue and Lord & Taylor. If, for example, a woman returns a pair of shoes that are defective or unsatisfactory, the department store will send the shoes to Brooks to fix. ”But our typical customer is one who comes in two to four times a year,” Morelli says. ”He brings me 6 to 10 pairs of shoes during the year . . . my market is middle of the road. It`s from people who buy nice things, good quality, and want to make them last. The guy out there driving an $80,000 car doesn`t need me, he`ll just go out and get a new pair of shoes (instead of getting any repairs).”
Shoes and handbags are not like clothes, Morelli points out. They need a lot of maintenance.
Wear and tear take tolls
”Clothes just hang there. They don`t do anything, you just have to keep them clean. But your shoes absorb a lot, they`re subjected to a lot of friction and a lot of perspiration. They require maintenance. And your handbags. Say you buy a nice leather handbag for $100, that`s conservative, and you use it most of the time. How many times a day are you pulling that zipper? So the zipper wears out. For $30 or $40, you can replace the zipper and get the bag spruced up and you`ve saved money.”
But you haven`t saved any more, he says, if you get a repair job done that doesn`t make the product look great. ”You want those shoes or that bag to look like they did before you beat the daylights out of them. It`s no savings if you get something repaired and it looks schlocky.”
Brooks does pickup and delivery service in the downtown area-generally, from Congress Parkway up to North Avenue and west to Halsted Street.
