READING, Pa. – For 75 years, Dan Addesso Shoe Service has been operating out of a quaint shop on Spring Street in Reading.
Nowadays, while most worn out shoes get the boot, Addesso will help “heel” them and save their “soles.”
“We hit everybody from priests to prostitutes because everybody wears shoes and I judge nothing,” said owner & proprietor, Dan Addesso. “I just fix their shoes and that’s it.”
Addesso started in shoe repair shortly after he got out of the service, when his father owned the business.
“I’m pretty good. Hand eye coordination, that’s all you need,” he explained. “That, and common sense. Although back then it was all leather and rubber.”
The construction of shoes and materials used have changed a lot since then and so has the number of places people can get them fixed, dwindling as the years go on.
Jim Burkhart has been Dan’s apprentice for the last five years, learning the trade in his free time while employed as a Reading Police Officer.
Dan Addesso Shoe Service in Reading
WFMZ-TV | Caitlin Rearden
“To be honest with you, it’s a stress reliever,” said Burkhart. “You get to deconstruct and then construct.”
As it turns out, shoes are in Burkhart’s blood too.
His father sold them at Kinney Shoes for 30 years and even further back, his ancestors were shoemakers and cobblers.
Now, he’s training to one day run the shop and Addesso holds him to high standards.
“The purpose of shoe repair is, we’re not going to be able to get it back to brand new, but we’ll try to get it there close as possible,” Burkhart said.
“The one thing you’ve got to be is honest with people because people are not dumb,” added Addesso. “If I do a lousy job, I wouldn’t be here 52 years. You do it the way you’d want it done for yourself and that’s why you last. It’s as simple as that.”