Dunedin shoemaker searches for owner of unclaimed shoes before closing shop

The Country Cobbler shoe store in the Dunedin suburb of Mornington is set to close unless Greg Fox can find a buyer (file photo).
photo: 123 RF

A Dunedin shoemaker is counting down the days until he hangs up his tools for the last time.

Greg Fox has been repairing shoes, bags, belts and even motorcycle leather at Country Cobbler in Mornington, Dunedin, for the past 25 years.

He has been looking for a buyer for his store and is hoping the owners of the unclaimed shoes will return in time to retrieve them before he closes his business.

“My plan is that if I can’t sell anything, I’ll just pack it up and take it home, and that’s what Country Cobbler is all about.”

Fox said he closed the store because he is 67 years old and wants to retire and spend more time with his grandchildren and travel.

“It’s time to go, it’s time to go, enjoy what we have left, enjoy life.”

He said there were a number of other shoemakers in Dunedin.

“It’s a dying industry for sure, there were a lot of them a few years ago but now I can only count three (shoemakers in Dunedin).”

He said a pair of boots belonging to a woman named Talia had been waiting to be picked up at the store for about four years.

He tried to contact her several times without success, but Talia found Otago Daily Times He said stories about the store were all over the Internet.

“Talia contacted us and she’s coming to pick up her boots next Wednesday, so it’s a happy ending to the story.”

The boots were knee-high, and Talia told Fox she bought them at a second-hand store and brought them here to have the heels fixed.

He said someone who buys the store doesn’t necessarily need to have experience from the start.

With some instruction, he said, someone with a steady hand and good eyesight could pick up some basic skills fairly easily.

“If someone is interested in opening a small shop but doesn’t quite know what to do, you can learn the basics, which takes a few weeks of practice, and you can offer limited services, by which I mean services like sewing which are a little more complex.”