Hi! I'm Kirby Allison and we love to help the well-dressed take care of their
wardrobes. In today's video I'm here with Jim MacFarland the 17 time award-winning
third-generation cobbler that is in charge of her kirby Allison shoe
restoration refurbishment program you know Jim thanks for joining us I mean I
can't begin to tell you just how honored and thrilled I am that you're
exclusively doing all the work for our program you know you bring such
incredible experience and talent to this that I couldn't be more confident in the
quality of craftsmanship that you're able to bring to our Kirby Allison
program. Well I'm glad you feel that way we've worked hard for a lot of years in
here my grandfather started in 1918 and and my father grew up in it and I grew
up in it and we've seen a lot of shoes. Yeah that's great so you know tell us a
little bit about kind of your background I mean you grew up in this trade. Yes I
did grow up I grew up in my dad's shop and matter of fact when I was in the
crib in the back of the shop my father had this hanging on a piece of string
this is a lady's soul and you can look in here I've got all my teeth marks
right I actually teeth done leather so I do
have it in my blood. Yeah you do absolutely that's amazing so
that is that was your teething toy you know that was it yeah good thing good
thing he didn't get in trouble for that so I mean talk to me I mean so you grew
up in this business and you know of course you could have gotten to do
anything but you chose to kind of stay in the family condition. Now actually I
was off in college I was I wanted to do something else I wanted to get out of
this okay but my dad was not in good health and I dropped my classes my
second year in school and came back to help we had three stores at the time and
when my dad just got his health just deteriorated and then one day he was
gone and I walked in turned that key and when you walk in and you turned that key
and you're coming by yourself for the first time in your life it's quite a
yeah it is and that's when I realized when I walked in
I felt him here and I knew this is where I was gonna be that's amazing that's
beautiful yeah you know he's got to be really proud of what you've done I mean
you know in terms of really representing kind of the McFarland family name I mean
you know all over the world well if he was here he would laugh at me and he
would say you think you're just some hotshot shoe cobbler and I remember
telling my wife many years ago I said honey well if this is what I'm going to
do I'm gonna try to take it to levels I've never taken a shoe repair business
before yeah and in here I am and I never dreamed that we would come to a level
like this yeah but here we are yeah and everything you've done I mean it's very
clear that you took a passion approach to your work I mean it wasn't just that
you were gonna throw in the towel and kind of inherit the family business but
you know I mean you have a passion for travel and a curiosity and you know
that's what led you to JR. Rendenbach you know you've gone to the factory
several times I mean you and I had an opportunity to go together yes
and then also compete worldwide in this craft yeah when I compete I don't
compete just to try to win an award I compete because I always learned
something new I've met just amazing craftsmen all over the world and some of
the work these guys do I mean everybody does something different and just
amazing talent and I want to just absorb as much of that in as I can for myself
so whenever I go to one of these trade shows and I see some of these wonderful
people and see some of their work I take that back here and incorporate it into
my business yeah so talk to us a little bit about some of the awards you have
won I mean certainly one of the ones for which you're most famous is the silver
cup yeah this is the Grand silver cup it's been around since 1938 actually wow
there's probably about maybe 20 guys alive and in the world that have
this when you win that, that is the most coveted trophy I think in our
industry that we've ever went after and we won that in 2002 and you can only win
it once once you win it sure yeah that's it yeah you're out you're done I've been
a judge now for the last 16 years okay so you won this 16 years ago and you've
been a judge sense yes there's just something that beautiful about just
doing good work you know and doesn't matter you know what you're doing
whether or not it's you know shoe polishing or selling hangers or you know
you know shoe repair yeah you know there's just something beautiful about
doing good work that kind of honors craftsmanship yeah it does you know one
of the hardest things is these days in business no matter what business is
service it's hard to get good service yeah and I want that shoe done on time I
want it to look good, I want a good job, and I want to done on time no problems
and I want that customer come in grab that shoe that are out there in a hurry
I don't want any delays whatsoever and we want to provide not just a good job
we want great service that's got to come with it yeah apparently yeah and one of
the other things that you know I think that you and I connected on it's just
the passion of doing something more I mean you know it's easy to go out and
you know in you know almost every street corner not literally but you know you
can find a local cobbler in every town and a lot of those cobblers do good work
but you know as a customer that's really passionate about their shoes and you
know really once you know their shoes to undergo something that's more than just
resoling I mean they want to complete restoration and refurbishment they want
something more that really honors or elevates this shoe I mean you and I
connected on that I mean whenever we first started talking and we were kind
of you know really exploring the possibility of this program I mean that
was one of the things that you know you've immediately connected with me on
it yeah you know when you're looking for quality sometimes you have to look you
have to look hard for it, but when you find it you know and you find a place
you like and you know it's a wonderful feeling one thing you've got to remember
when you buy a quality piece of footwear whether it's women's shoes men's shoes
whatever you're buying and you're taking it into a quality shop and you're
getting a quality product put on there good people that know the quality they
never balk at the price or anything like that but you know what's amazing is
sometimes people come in and they're bringing in a beautiful shoe
and I think they think cobbler still do things for 25 cents or 50 cents or
something like that but you know I mean in order to honor a really well-made
pair of shoes I mean you have to use great materials JR Rendenbach oak
bark tanned leather outsoles it's the you know Lulu and triumph taupe layers
which are bespoke quality it's you know the Kirby Allison and Wellington
shoelaces it's the Saphir shoeshine at the end i mean bringing
all that together really two plus two is more than four its
just nothing like quality no matter what it is you know I don't mind paying for
something that's really good yeah great well you know we couldn't be more
excited and thrilled to have you on board you know we're just really just
honoured and blown away by the quality of craftsmanship that you've shown us
and you know we're gonna be doing before and after photographs of every single
pair of shoes that go through our program so you know if you're send your
shoes in we're gonna document you know what they looked like before they came
in and what they look like after we're done and so far I mean I've been
absolutely blown away this has totally exceeded my expectations
and I look forward to continue to develop the program well we're gonna
look forward to pushing along and just setting that bar higher and higher hey
Jim thank you so much for joining us absolutely thank you if you enjoyed this
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