About Us & Our Craft
Austin Shoe Hospital
"An Austin Original."
All in the Family
Our family has been in the shoe repair business since we first debuted over a hundred years ago—atop a horse-drawn carriage—in Houston, Texas.
Since then, we’ve carefully repaired tens of millions of shoes, boots, handbags, belts, wallets, and just about anything leather one can dream up.
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And with several locations in Austin (and throughout Texas!), you can bet there is a friendly neighborhood cobbler eager to repair your favorites!
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Ready to get started?
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Nowadays, just about everyone in our family is woven into the business—from grandparents and parents to aunts and uncles and from sons and daughters to spouses and cousins alike.
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And we wouldn’t have it any other way.
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We’re so happy you found us!
Now, how can we help?
The Shoe Hospitals
"We come from a big family of Texas Cobblers"
The Shoe Hospital Family
Austin Shoe Hospitals are part of the world-famous Shoe Hospital family of companies that have been repairing shoes, boots, handbags—even luggage, horse saddles, jackets, and near-anything made of leather—throughout the great state of Texas since 1906.
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The Shoe Hospitals very first store in Houston took the shape of a horse-drawn carriage one hundred and fourteen years ago.
Since then, The Shoe Hospitals have opened dozens of brick and mortar stores throughout Houston, Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Plano, and San Antonio to serve the repair needs of all shoe and boot buffs, connoisseurs, mavens, collectors, and enthusiasts alike!
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Today, the Shoe Hospital family of companies is the largest shoe repair company in the world, taking great pride in the quality of our craft.
Austin, Texas
"Our family is from all over Texas, but we put our roots down in Austin."
“Keep Austin Wierd”
We’re not exactly sure why that’s our city’s motto, and yet, it makes so much sense.
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Austin is known for live music, world-class BBQ, our giant village of bats, and of course, shoe repair.
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You’ll be happy to know that while your favorite things are with us, we’ll treat them to the best kolaches our city has to offer before they land happily back in your arms to enjoy again, as if it was the very first time you met.
Sustainability
"If you can believe it, nearly 1.5 million tons of waste is produced each year in the manufacture of new footwear, and that number doesn’t take into account the shoes being thrown in the trash."
We need to break this cycle and reach back to the sage philosophy we learned from our depression-era grandparents—waste not, want not.
Austin Shoe Hospital is on a mission to challenge all humans to buy well-made, eco-responsibly manufactured shoes and boots that can be repaired by skilled cobblers and worn for years upon years upon years upon ... you get the idea.
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We hope you’ll share in our mission and choose repair over waste!
Waste Not, Want Not.
Few things are as destructive to animal life and our already overflowing landfills than new shoe and boot manufacturing.
The massive amounts of leather, the rubber and plastic waste, the chemicals used in dyeing and processing—even the packaging and shipping—is all unnecessary misuse of resources we could (and should) be recycling and re-using.
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Our society’s increased access to low cost goods naturally encourages us all to buy more and more.
It’s become too easy to purchase cheap (and cheaply-made) shoes and boots that we’ll only use for a brief period of time before we swiftly toss them in the garbage when they start to look shabby or fall apart. Then what do we do? Buy more. More leather, more rubber, more chemicals. More and more waste.
