The shoe repair industry is a worthy investment that has created a lot of employment opportunities for a lot of people. Not only have the cobblers and other individuals who play a part in the shoe repair industry benefited but also the government has benefited a lot from this sector. Data that was collected in the United States from various research programs, showed variant results whereby there were huge benefactors from the industry but in the recent years, the industry has been coupled with a lot of challenges that have even lead to the closure of some of shoe repair shops in the country. 10 years ago the shoe repair business had experienced periods of rapid economic growth. In different states and countries. There was the mushrooming of different shoe repair outlets that not only provide shoe repair services but they also provided repair services for other leather equipment’s as well.
A recent survey that was carried out in the different states of the USA, affirmed that there are only an about 70000 shoe repair shops that are still operational up to now. There are many factors that may have led to this drastic drop. Both supply and demand factors are to be blamed here as with the recent times most individuals have preferred to either repair their shoes from home or completely buy the different set of shoes instead of paying a large sum of money to cobblers or shoe repairing industries.
USA Shoe Repair Figures
A shoe statistics reports stated that there was an average spending of about $ 212 by each USA citizen in the shoe repair industry in 2015. This was a good statistics for both the shoe repair business and the shoe repair industry as a whole as it leads to the reduction in the rate of unemployment among youth in the USA. However with an average revenue of about $310million, an annual growth rate of about 1.9% we expect that there will be possible solutions that will fight the increasing demand of fast fashion retailers who are really a threat to this industry. With the mere fact that there are no specific companies that have conquered the shoe repair industry, we expect that the entry of a multinational or transnational business to possibly revamp and take the shoe repairing sector to the next level.
What purposes does the shoe repair industry serve in the economy?
The shoe repair industry provides a lot of shoe repair services to different individuals globally. Most of the companies specialize in the repairing of different types of shoe types that cut across all the gender lines. The common feature of most of the is shoe repair shops is the carrying out of shoe repair onsite regardless of the nature of the repair services which is at hand. This is due to the fact that most of this shoe repair shops operate on a small scale basis and currently, there is no reputable company that has ventured into the shoe repair business. Other types of services that are being offered by the shoe repair business include the replacement of chunks, repairing of bags, boot repairs, leather upper repairs alongside many other services.
Shoe Repairing industries creating employment opportunities
The shoe repair industries also create a lot of employment opportunities for different individuals. Most of this some repair companies have employed a youth to serve in the different capacities as either cobbler, customer care assistants or machine operators. Moreover, the shoe repair industries provide shoe repair services alongside the selling of other shoe repair products like shoelaces, shoe cleaning accessories, soles among many other related commodities this really opens up the market for the small-medium enterprise to not only start their business but to also develop their brands alongside with the shoe repair industry.
Shoe repairing and environmental conservation
The shoe repair industry also plays a vital role in conservation and the maintenance of our environment. The recycling of reused shoes and their products has been recommended by different environmental conservation agencies as it has reduced the rate of environmental degradation. The discarding of worn out shoes may be a thing of the past as shoe repair industries provide an opportunity to clients of revamping their old shoes to have that new apparent look. Current statistics affirm that the recycling of your shoes may save up to 1billion animals from a lot of illness. By you not letting your old shoes fill up landfills where the different set of animals live, you will be doing a good service by the provision of a better environment for other animals.
Also, it will be vital to consider how long the materials you let into the landfills take to decompose. Leather, for instance, may take at least 25 years not to mention the shoe souls, laces among other materials which are used in the shoe making process. The global foot repair waste statistics may not be something that we may want to smile about as it has produced wastes amounting to around 1.5 million tons which is quite worrying and by the mere fact that this figure excludes individual consumers disposal rates we may not stand in a good position to protect our environment if we do nothing at this time or in the future.
The future of the shoe repair industry
This industry has been faced with a lot of challenges that we are not sure if the industry will live to see vision 2030. The shoe repair industry has been faced with a challenge of stiff competition from cheap imported and fashionable shoes from other countries who specializes in the shoe manufacturing industry. Moreover, customers are rational and may not want to pay almost the same price for a shoe repair service that they will rather purchase the new set of shoes. Globally governments need to step in and provide support to the shoe repair industry so as to shun them away from heavy competition that the industry faces from the cheap shoe importation business. It will also be vital if well-established companies can operate shoe repair business and plunge in capital into this sector.
