Fixit shops are so now, and it's one of the little-but-large comforts of life to have an ace shoe and handbag repairman—somebody who's got your back when the zipper breaks on the irreplaceable pocketbook or your best winter boots spring a leak. One of the Valley's best is at Paul's Shoe Repair in Amherst, around the back and in the basement of the building on North Pleasant Street that houses Bart's. What that man can't patch, nobody can patch; he kept a pair of almost-knee-high black boots going for me for 15 years by patching them. Yet he'll say right out if something can't be repaired. Put new zipper on purse or leather backpack? You bet. Replace crumbling heels of husband's vinyl hiking boots? No way.
The shop smells of leather and polish. It's decked with the obvious and the obscure accoutrements of the cobbler's craft: cutters, nailers, polishes and more polishes. The work is first-rate and always done on time. And here's a great little secret: shoes that are finished and polished but not claimed are sold here for $5, so if you're in need of refurbishments to your footwear wardrobe, it's not a bad idea to glance into Paul's (the shoes waiting for new owners are just to the left as you walk in) before paying full price somewhere else.
