If your favorite pair of dress shoes has a blowout a few days before a big event what you need is a cobbler.
For the last six decades, Clardy's Cobbler Shoppe in Fayetteville has been helping customers reclaim the very bottom of their soles.
Steven Clardy learned the trade from his father. He tried medical sales for a few years, but “saving soles” is a longtime family tradition.
“Our bread and butter is soles and heels on men's nice shoes and cowboy boots as you know. Other than that we fix purses, belts, luggage.”
The latest generation of Clardy's children will also be dipping their toes into the family business.
Steven says It takes time and patience to learn the trade.
“It's a dying art. Usually when the Cobbler dies the business dies. But for us it's something our Dad wanted us to carry down,” said Steven. That’s why he bought the business from his dad.
His brother also owns a shoppe in Bentonville.
Clardy's also repairs other leather items like purses and briefcases. If it needs to be fixed or stitched, generations have visited the Cobbler Shoppe generations.