Shoe shine businesses disappear in the US, but not completely

Penn Station Shoe Repair and Shoe Shine is a small shoe polishing business in New York City. On a recent weekday, customers sat in the shoe shine booth, pulling out newspapers and phones to read while they shined their shoes. Shoe shiners cleaned the footwear and added an oily substance to protect the leather material of the shoes. Upon completion, clients paid eight dollars for the job.

A sign hanging in the small business says: “We are not God, but we save soles.”

The shoe shine has a long history in the United States, dating back hundreds of years. But today, the tradition of getting a quick shine is waning. Shoeshine stands are disappearing in cities and towns across the country.

The COVID-19 pandemic intensified the business decline. More people are working from home than in the past. And it has become popular to wear more casual work clothes. All of this means fewer customers for shoe shine businesses.

Nisan Khaimov owns the Penn Station booth and said 80 to 100 shoes were being polished there every business day before the pandemic. Now it is from 30 to 50 from Tuesday to Thursday and less on Monday and Friday. The work-from-home model, which is common across the United States, is hurting his business.

“Until people go back to work, the problems will not be solved,” Khaimov said.

Rory Heenan is a 38-year-old accountant from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He recounted that when he was a child he would take the train with his father to work one Friday of every month and watch him shine his shoes.

“I was just sitting here like a little man, you know, watching,” he said. “And here I am 30 years later, doing the same thing. So it’s certainly something that’s passed on over time.”

On the other side of the city, Jairo Cárdenas is also feeling the losses. Business at Alpha Shoes Repair Corporation is down 75 percent from before the pandemic. His business used to shine 60 or 70 shoes a day. Now, on a good day, he shines shoes for 10 or 15 clients.

Shoe repairs generally make more money than shines. At David Mesquita’s Leather Spa, which operates five shoe repair and shine businesses in the area, repairs are the bulk of its sales. But shoe shiners are still an important offer to attract people, since most shoe repair companies do not have the service.

Before the pandemic, Leather Spa had four shoe-shine chairs in its business inside New York’s Grand Central Terminal. He employed six shoe shiners. Together, they would put out about 120 shines a day. Now, there are three shoe shiners who make 40 or 50 decades a day at most.

But Mesquita is slowly seeing people return. His December 2022 shine numbers are up 52 percent compared to December 2021.

“Traffic is slowly coming back, we’re seeing commuters come in and everything, but we’re still not 100 percent where we were,” Mesquita said.

He added that the shoe shine is not something that is going to disappear completely.

“People like to treat themselves,” he said, “either once or twice a week or, you know, once every two weeks. It’s nice,” she concluded.

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