DO NOT USE THIS COBBLER!!!! Brought a brand new pair of leather boots that cost $1500 to put a protective sole on the existing leather outsole. When I picked them up, the boots were mangled. Toe shaft of both boots were totally creased, uneven job on the new soles, and shoe glue EVERYWHERE on my new boots. When I confronted him on his sub par craftsmanship, he got defensive and agitated and I ended up walking out because it was either that, or punching him. I chose the high road. Please read the one star reviews from this business, just keep scrolling down. Not sure how this business has been open for so long...please do yourself a favor and spare yourself the horror and frustration that I had to go through. read more

I've been coming to this place since the pandemic, and they are great. Terrific work, fast service and the most competitive prices in my area. read more

Amazing service, pretty fast turnaround and willing to get creative in the best way to fix shoes and protect soles.

Fast turnaround, great service and the shoes came out looking brand new. Will continue to support this local business

Never been to a cobbler prior to this, but I researched like crazy and found John's. I brought him a 10 year old pair of Fiorentini + Baker elf boots that were mangled beyond all recognition and these guys made them look (and feel) brand new. The cushions in the soles are dreamy, and you would never in a million years guess these had new zippers, heels -- all of it. And for a very reasonable price. These are really nice people, totally old school kind of place that we should all support and encourage. I will definitely be returning. read more

best shoe guy ever - and I lamented at how many vanished during/after COVID - but found hope when I found John's. skillful, honest, gets the job done. highly recommen. read more

I've used John's a number of times over the last few years and have always had great results. Very friendly, prices are good (I've compared with other places downtown), and the work has always been top notch. So glad they've made it through the pandemic and seem to be going strong. read more

Had them re-color leather shoes that had been damaged by soap. Color was not exact, but was close enough. Charges my $60. Less than 2 months later, after having worn the shoes maybe once or twice in dry conditions, the color started to come off. I took them back to them, and he blamed me for not taking care of the shoes. I thought he'd fix it for free since they screwed up the first time. Charged me another $60. Should've walked away but I didn't. In fairness, they did it right the second time (it had nothing to do with me "not taking care" of the shoes). I just ended up paying double. They don't stand behind their service, so I don't trust them. read more

Been coming for years. Have had shoes and boots RE-soled, taps added, heels fixed, and cracked leather repaired. I've always been satisfied with the excellent work and great service. It's not the warm and fuzzy smiley kind of service, just typical New York straight talk. But I appreciate that kind of directness. I've never seen him or his apprentice be rude. He's honest about what can or can't be done. Prices Are high, but for the quality of work, I'd gladly pay it. He's kept my shoes in great condition, and some of them are over twenty years old! Long live John's! read more

Hi there, If you like your costly shoes ruining, rude service and high prices, this place is for you. Oh yes, the shoe shine is great (but that's a different service team). Take care. read more

I admire tradespeople who take great pride in their work and perform with professionalism. This is a great cobbler with a perfect location where they keep their hours, deliver quality work at an adequate price and treat customers with respect. Taps, soles, restyling, extending the life of shoes! read more

This is the best value, highest quality shoe repair in NYC. The staff are kind, extremely knowledgeable, and the services are very well priced. I brought a pair of Gucci loafers in for extensive repairs and shine. I received them back looking brand new. I will be referring all of my friends to John's and have already brought another pair of boots in for repair. Cannot sing John's praises loudly enough. 10/10 read more

Ruined my expensive sneakers, then threw me out for questioning it. And tried to pin it on me. Unacceptable behavior in customer relations, enough to drive a neighborhood business down down down read more

I had to get my dr martens zipper repaired after the store said they wouldn't do anything for me after a year. brought them here $35 for one zipper and it was ready within a couple days. will definitely use again if i have to read more

very nice guy put on a mask when he saw I was wearing one. Needed 2 heels replaced - thought I'd wait days but he asked if I wanted to wait. Took 10 mins and only cost $10. Thought that was excellent. read more

I have to agree with Leena H. and Hannah K. This place used to be a lot better but customer service and quality of work is just severely lacking. I dropped off a pair of black heeled loafers two days ago. The heels were worn unevenly and needed to be fixed. The first shock is that it used to cost $8 just in 2008. Now? $13. He said, "Tomorrow OK?" Me, "Sure, but I might not be able to get them until Friday (3 days later)." Him, "OK". I actually was able to come in the next day to fetch my shoes. I showed up about 5:30, before they closed. I handed the young man that works there and he couldn't find my shoes. Apparently they hadn't started on them. I had a dinner to get to BY 6PM and I had to wait while they did my shoes. When done, I rushed out and grabbed a cab but I was still late. This morning I put on my shoes and they made this horrid tapping noise when I walked on my wood floors. These are loafers mind you, not heels. I looed at the bottom of the shoes and they stuck these round white plastic things in the middle of my heels. One dead center in the middle of each heel. What the hell are these for??? (The heels themselves measure about 1.25" square and the white circle things are like 8mm across). I don't know what they are but this is bizarre. They really should have explained to me if they were going to do something out of the ordinary with my shoes (which they have reheeled before). I'm peeved that they did this. I've tried to call their business to find out what happened but all I got is their fax machine. The heels otherwise look good, but making me wait and then doing this weird crap with my heels ensures that I won't be back again. These are my favorite shoes and now the noise they make just burns a hole in my brain. read more

The shoe shine was excellent and fast: I've been looking for the right shoe shine place in or near the East Village, and now I've found it. read more

John's Shoe Repair - The leather dancing shoes I brought in came out shining. - Shoe Repair Near Me - New York, New York

Great shoe shine. Fixed my shoes. Good local shop. Fair price. I was happy with my experience.

By far, the best cobbler in NYC or aywhere!

Place is old school shoe shine magic !! I have brought three pairs of shoes here for major repairs . New soles , bottoms and high heel repairs for my wife ... and sometimes me .. great work . I go here weekly for shines , excellent service . The people here work hard so please tip . Also recently restored a pair of 8 eye Docs . Place should be a landmark . Be careful going during Washington Irving high school dismissal. read more

These guys are great. I went to three shops before this to get some soles fixed (all with four stars on yelp), and all three gave me the same really bad option to fix my shoes. These guys looked at the shoes, picked out a few different ways to go, and we agreed on a really great way to fix them. The shoes look amazing now. When I picked up my shoes a few hours later he was doing the same thing with another customer. If you want your shoes fixed fixed at a place that buys gold and repairs watches, go somewhere else. If you want your shoes fixed at a real shoe repair shop go to John's. read more

I needed to have a strap on my knapsack sewn and was recommended to go to John's by another local tailor. Not only was it fixed in under 2 minutes but the gentleman was courteous, direct and charged me fairly. Also, the interior energy gave off charming antiquity (if a bit rustic) of a classic New York tailor/shoe repair shop. Convenient location, too. Give them a try! read more

John is still amazing, natch. Added to this, he now shows artwork in his front window of a terrific young painter named Jason Diaz. If you walk by the shop on Irving Place, take a moment and check Jason out. Of course, you can still come inside, and your shoes will be beautifully repaired. John's sense of craft extends to.. giving new artists a 'foothold'. How awesome! read more

I agree - I'm surprised by the neg reviews. This place is consistently good, timely, and the men who run the place are very nice. I recommend it! read more

Buy my laces here because they are a bit cheaper than some other places but have regretted using them for more careful work. I came in a while back to get an extra hole punched in a belt and the young guy just eyeballed it rather than measuring exactly where the next hole should be. Sufficient to say, he didn't have a great eye. More recently, I was trying to attach an external pocket to a waxed canvas bag. The 6 layers were too much for my sewing machine so I took it in to see whether they could sew it on. The young guy asked for $20, but agreed to $15. When I picked it up the stitching was crooked. They didn't apologize but I figured that they'd tried their best. When I got home I put on my glasses only to discover that while the one side was in the black thread that matched the rest of the bag, the other--visible---side was in brown. Ended up having to pull out the stitching and did it by hand. read more

I had a pair of very worn but loved black ankle booties that I just couldn't imagine parting with (or parting with the money to buy new). John's Shoe Repair put on new heels and polished them and they look so much better, as close to new as possible for a favorite pair worn over the last 4 years. And I only paid $22 for a day turn-around. They are quick, efficient, honest and do a tremendous job with a well-loved pair of shoes/boots. read more

They always do *such* a fantastic job! I've had a few vintage leather bags rehabbed here and they've come back looking like new. I'm really rough on my shoes and the team here is able to fix pretty much everything to like-new condition--repaired leather or complete rewraps on heels, new textured soles, and whatever else I need. Service is generally pretty fast and prices are fair for the area and quality of work. read more

You can't ask for better shoe repair. Great quality of materials and of workmanship, at a fair price. I hope they stay forever.

Great work! Honest assessment of what can or cannot be fixed. This is a reasonable priced shoe repair shop for the City! I changed jobs and was further from this location, tried another spot got overcharged and subpar work! Came back here and will NOW make this my spot! read more

got new soles put on my shoes and when I picked them up, there was residual glue all over them. Instead of cleaning them up thoughtfully, the guy behind the counter began scraping it away, scratching up the rest of the shoes in the process. Granted my shoes were not in perfect shape to begin with, but that's no reason to leave glue all over them or scrape them up further. I'll never come back here. read more

Was AWESOME! Just needed to get two pairs of heels fixed and they did it in 5 minutes! Definitely found my go-t o shoe repair in the city!!

Where to start...gave this place a chance since it looked like it had been around for a while and I had seen positive reviews in the past. Lesson learned - I will not be back there ever again. I brought a pair of shoes that had a worn down heel and needed a new leather wraparound piece to stitch everything in. We negotiated down to a price that I still felt was high, but I'm not a cobbler and it was a bit of work so I accepted. We agreed that I would come in 5 calendar days later. I showed up 5 calendars later early in the am. No shoes. Came back the next day and what I found were hardly the shoes that I had dropped off. I am a bit picky about what I put on my feet, and I wear these shoes almost every day, so I asked him to make sure when I picked them up they looked exactly the same (same patina, wood heel, white stitching around the outside). What I got were beautiful soles, leather heel, brown stitching and an area on the bottom of the leather part of the shoe that had previously been covered by a wraparound piece (which was not adequately replaced) that had a totally different patina. He explained that that the fault of the piece that was there before and he tried to stain it out (clearly after he had already put on the sole) and in the process had stained the stitching. He said the stitching will become white soon. So I got back a different shoe with mismatched patina throughout the leather, dark brown stitching and a non-wood heel. Never again will I be back and I urge all of you to go to a real professional if you are getting real work done. I learned my lesson the hard way. Sucks. read more

These guys are great. Before I moved closer, I used to take 2 trains just to go to Joe's. They are super fast, priced well and do a great job. read more

I was disappointed because of all the great reviews up here, but when i went to pick up my shoes there was a large, clearly fresh, scratch over the area that was just polished. The guy behind the counter said there was no way that he did that and refused to take responsibility for it. I will never return to this store again. I got my shoes back worse than i gave them. There are other reviews here of the guy at the store getting very defensive and aggressive when you point out that a mistake was made. That is exactly the experience i had today. read more

The best shoe repair!! They have done really difficult jobs for me - vintage and new. Really fast and very reasonable. read more

Just wanted to update since I've had work done on 2 separate occasions recently. The quality and prices were as good as ever. I had partial and full soles and re-heeling done (no complaints about any of it), and I was offered the option of same-day service both times. read more

I have hate walking into stores and seeing once again that people just don't care about the quality of work they give you. This is my first time writing a review, but this place just boiled my blood. I asked this repair shop glue back straps together and make my shoe look as good as new! When I asked them to clean the leather straps they said they couldn't do it???? That was so strange to me, considering it was a shoe repair shop. I had left it there for 2 weeks hoping that they could bring back my show to life. Not only did the shoe look worse. But they straps where not glued together. There was another scratch on the shoe. And to make matters worse they charged me 60$ and when I asked to get my money back for the "gluing job" they said NO and the guy stop talking to me to help someone else! Can you say RUDE, there is no such thing as customer service anymore. Eventually he said okay fine leave it here. -- for him to take my shoe make another mess of it, please, I just wanted to get the hell out of there. I didn't want to deal with this man at all. He was rude, the son lies, and for all of you that think he does a good job, I would have to disagree. But take your shoes there and be the judge for yourself. Me personally, I got screwed! Save yourself the aggravation! read more

This is the first and best shoe cobbler I have found since my move to Manhattan. Give them a try you will not be disappointed with their prices, service or product. read more

If you're in the Union Square area and going to a concert at the Palladium, or meeting someone in Underbar and need a good shine on your boots, come to John's, around 15th St. and Irving Place. It's all shoes all the time and I'm all in favor of supporting old, no frills places that do exactly what they say they will. Prices reasonable, expertise assured. read more

I have been going to John's for many years now and he never disappoints! My favorite pair of boots is now 20 years old and each time John performs miracles in bringing them back to life! They have had major surgery at this point and still look just like new. I don't know about other people's experiences with John but they do an amazing job for me! read more