THIS IS CLASSIFIED FOOTWEAR
Classified footwear is founded in search of providing footwear repair services in its epitome.
Ever walked in to a shoe repair store only to receive mediocre services and unexplanatory repair work?
Well don’t blame the person behind the counter.
This is the result of a failed* business model. (In my opinion)*
Time > Speed
Quality > Quantity
Having experienced being a cobbler in a local shopping mall for two years, I took many opportunities to rework my strategies in offering a better service each time. Alas the only way to provide service as best as I can, is to remove myself from a commercial setting.
Singapore is a metropolis in all measures and us Singaporeans, live a really fast pace of life. Most of us have multiple agendas in a day and we seek wholeheartedly to pursue them without failure. With that being said, we can at times feel frustrated and show resentment at the world.
Bringing you back to the context of shoe repair in a commercial setting, these are the questions most asked.
“How long do you need to finish the repair?”
“I bring you more pairs of shoes, can cheaper?”
“Can faster anot? I got appointment to catch.”
“Can cheaper anot? My shoe only $30*” (amount may vary)
Answering to questions like this takes a toll on the mental health of the cobbler. This is why most of them wouldn’t even bother explaining further. You may think it’s easy to just reply to these questions. However questions like this don’t just come once in a day, it happens almost every time.
Haggling over price is a big one.
Do you ever haggle over price before a receiving a service like having a haircut or massage? So why haggle over the price of a shoe repair?
Your shoes can be cheap, yes but that’s a consequence of fast fashion, and hence why they breakdown so quickly either.
You may have an appointment to catch, yes but handiwork takes time and lessened time to work on a project may result in undesirable consequences.
Lessened time may also result in undesirable mental state of the cobbler!
You can bring more shoes to the cobbler to work on, but that doesn’t mean the time and effort to take on completing them will be easier or faster.
As John wick likes to say, consequences.
What you think, say or put out has consequences and often times we don’t think about that.
Much has been said and truly I think these are all just consequences of certain movement and ideas.
With that being said, there is much to work on this industry and it will require multiple generations of people to change it.
This is where I put my feet in and stand my ground, to kick start the revolution of this industry.