ORANGE PARK \u2013\u00a0Hardly a day passes without someone calling or stopping by Gus and Company Shoe and Luggage Repair and asking\u00a0Lee Vaccaro and Michael Hill\u00a0if they really are cobblers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
They chuckle and answer yes, knowing they\u00a0do much more.\u00a0In addition to being able to \u201cfix any shoe,\u201d Gus and Company is a luggage repair center\u00a0specializing in handbag, belt and wallet repairs, alterations, saddles, hats, brackets, leather, shoe-stretching\u00a0and zippers.\u00a0<\/p>\n
It\u2019s\u00a0a craft that started in\u00a0the\u00a0Vaccaro family in 1904 and\u00a0is now\u00a0in its fourth generation.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cMy great-grandfather got\u00a0this\u00a0started\u00a0in Jacksonville in 1904,\u201d Vaccaro said from the Orange Park store at 1871 Wells Road. \u201c’If a human being\u00a0made it,\u00a0a human being\u00a0could\u00a0fix it’\u00a0was my grandfather\u2019s mantra.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Vaccaro said the COVID-19 pandemic challenged his specialized industry. His family closed the Wells Road location, which they opened in 2009, and the Jacksonville store on Adams Street,\u00a0and has slowly rebuilt their customer base.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cPeople weren\u2019t wearing pants or shoes during\u00a0COVID, and\u00a0they weren\u2019t traveling,\u201d he said. \u201cIt was the first time in 120 years that we ever closed the store during the height of COVID.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Another obstacle is that many people aren\u2019t aware that leather repair services\u00a0still exist.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are days we get two or three people who ask if we really fix shoes or work with leather,\u201d Hill said. \u201cThey seem surprised.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThere aren\u2019t many people left who do this,\u201d Vaccaro said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gus and Company\u00a0provides the boots and shoulder straps for the motorcycle units for the Clay, St. Johns and Jacksonville Sheriff\u2019s Offices and the\u00a0saddles, breast\u00a0plates,\u00a0harnesses\u00a0and stirrups for the Mounted Patrol Unit for JSO.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe stay busy,\u201d Vaccaro said.\u00a0\u201cWe\u2019ve done heavy-duty furniture covers that had to be adapted and manipulated, a lot of customization and alterations to boots and ladies\u2019 ice skates and roller skates, vintage items like the restoration of a leather donkey and stuffed leather elephant.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
And, of course, they fix shoes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cWe do\u00a0souls,\u00a0heels and things like that,\u201d Vaccaro said. \u201cThey\u00a0are all done in the back. We\u00a0have ripped\u00a0jackets,\u00a0handbags,\u00a0buckles\u00a0for\u00a0shoes\u00a0and\u00a0things like that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Gus and Company is also a certified\u00a0luggage repair center for Samsonite, Hartmann, Boyt, Ricardo, American\u00a0Tourister, Vera Bradley, Swiss Army, High\u00a0Sierra\u00a0and\u00a0SkyWay.\u00a0That alone is a full-time job.\u00a0<\/p>\n
If\u00a0it\u2019s\u00a0ripped, torn, faded, too small,\u00a0damaged or falling apart, Vaccaro said his grandfather told him, “If a man made it, a man can fix it.”<\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ORANGE PARK \u2013\u00a0Hardly a day passes without someone calling or stopping by Gus and Company Shoe and Luggage…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":439669,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5136],"tags":[5229,15024,15015,15023,15026,3188,15016,723,15021,7310,15020,15022,7648,15018,15017,15025,15019,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-439668","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-jacksonville","8":"tag-america","9":"tag-argyle","10":"tag-clay-county","11":"tag-doctors-inlet","12":"tag-eagle-harbor","13":"tag-fl","14":"tag-fleming-island","15":"tag-florida","16":"tag-green-cove-springs","17":"tag-jacksonville","18":"tag-keystone-heights","19":"tag-lake-asbury","20":"tag-margaret","21":"tag-middleburg","22":"tag-orange-park","23":"tag-pace-island","24":"tag-penney-farms","25":"tag-united-states","26":"tag-united-states-of-america","27":"tag-unitedstates","28":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","29":"tag-us","30":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115699962710894156","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439668","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=439668"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/439668\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/439669"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=439668"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=439668"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=439668"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}