Online shoemaker Shoedoc; Good shoes can last a lifetime with good maintenance

If you have a good pair of shoes you actually buy them for a lifetime. But like people, cars, gardens and watches also shoes need to be well maintained. You can compare it with yourself. If you live healthy, exercise enough and take care of your hygiene the chance is most likely that you will live longer then when you don’t. This is not any different with shoes except of the fact that they of course don’t eat, and that exercise actually makes them wear out quicker. Shoes however need to be cleaned as well and get a treatment for the skins they’re usually made of which we could eventually see as their food (feeding the skins). And when they are broken or worn out at some places they can be repaired. And like people also shoes have doctors they can go to. A good example of one of those doctors is Shoedoc in Baden-Baden which is ran by the passionate shoemakers Matthias Vickermann and Martin Stoya, who also make bespoke shoes in their shoemaker atelier Vickermann & Stoya.

Photo credits: Vickermann & Stoya

Shoemakers with heart and soul

It was in 2004 that Matthias Vickermann and Martin Stoya joined forces and started their bespoke shoemaking atelier Vickermann & Stoya in Baden-Baden. Both are shoemakers with heart and soul and shoes are their life. Quickly after they started many people from all over Germany and even other parts of the world knew to find their way to the town in the Black Forest to have a pair of bespoke shoes made. Locally they took already some repairs of shoes and did that with the highest precision, making sure people would get their shoes back like almost new. Their customers from other parts of Germany started to make requests for repairs as well since there is not a shoemaker anymore on every corner of the street like in the past. This made Matthias Vickermann and Martin Stoya think of a new concept in which they could take orders all over Germany and provide high quality shoe repairs for a larger public. The first steps of the Shoedoc concept were taken by shipping in shoes that need to be repaired and ship them back to the customer afterwards. Slightly unconventional at the time for most people as they were used of bringing shoes to the shoemakers in the neighbourhood. But the ideal solution for the fact that so many of them are disappearing.

Photo credits: Vickermann & Stoya

Goodbye throw-away society, hello sustainability!

Bringing your shoes to a shoemaker is a very sustainable way of living and actually too much forgotten over the past 20 years. We were landed in a throw-away society where people preferred to buy a new pair of shoes every year or even worse every season and therefor sometimes even threw away what could still be repaired. Something that would be unlikely in the further past and something that a style icon like for example HRH the Prince of Wales would never do. He is wearing for over 40 years the same pair of bespoke shoes which are well maintained and repaired from time to time. And why would you not if you buy a pair of quality shoes that you easily spend a large amount of money on? The development of people wanting to live more sustainable and rather go for quality then quantity is something that Shoedoc saw already many years ago and is one of the reasons they started their service to the whole of Germany. Over the last years they have repaired more than 150,000 shoes, and this were not only bespoke shoes but various kind of shoes. From sneakers, hiking shoes, dance shoes, boots and all types of ready to wear shoes were taken into repair and went back to their owners for a new life. 150,000 shoes were actually saved from the trash this way.

Photo credits: Vickermann & Stoya

How does Shoedoc work?

Even though you can still bring repairs personally in the Baden-Baden shop of Shoedoc, they became an online shoemaker where you can book a repair online and arrange the shipping from wherever in the world you are to Baden-Baden. This way the process is fast, efficient and easy. When you go the website of Shoedoc you can easily walk through the process by selecting the button of choosing a repair. Options like changing the heels, glue repairs, new soles or combi packs are there with the prices. Once you put this in your basket you can pay the repair costs and the shipping costs for the return shipment in which you have also the choice to get the shoes back with a Shoedoc box for a little extra. With the normal shipment option, you get your shoes back in a complimentary shoe bag. The shoes are usually repaired within a week. Paying is possible with PayPal, Credit card or a bank transfer. The repairs are carried out by the very skilled team that also makes the bespoke shoes in the Vickermann & Stoya atelier. The knowledge they have of building a shoe from scratch is valuable for repairing shoes.

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The future of shoe repairs

As small local shoemakers who repair shoes are getting rare more and more, but at the same time we want to live more sustainable, a concept like Shoedoc is helping out. Booking a repair online is efficient and I think it makes the bar lower to have a pair of shoes repaired. It is a beautiful example of how something extremely traditional like the craft of repairing shoes is merging with modern technology like the internet to create a new way for people to find the service they need for their shoes.

For more information on Shoedoc you can go to their website: https://www.shoedoc.de or follow them on Instagram and Facebook.