Cobbler’s Bench

PLEASE NOTE NEW LOCATION.
1800 G Street NW, Ste. 110. On the 18^th Street side of the building.
Great customer service continues at the new location.
Chris is friendly and knowledgeable about his trade. He provides high quality work. And shares the benefit of his experience.

$ 48 to replace heels and I believe what are called «toe taps» on a pair of gently used black suede pumps. Given the quality of work and materials used (average), definitely overpriced. The deal-​breaker for me was the over-​zealous brushing of the suede, which is now shiny and bald looking. I was recommended to use sandpaper (!!!) to brush my shoes… No wonder. OK for a generic, emergency heel replacement job, but I will not bring any of my beloved shoes here.

This place just moved to G St. New space is much better, these photos are old. They do the best shoeshine I’ve found in DC.

Have been here a few times but no more. The building and shop space are a mess. What a dump. The equipment he uses is old and dirty. Quality of work is fair but expensive. Above all else the unpredictable hours of the place make it impossible to know when to go. I waste so much time going there and then the owner is absent.

I wanted to write an update on Cobbler’s Bench. After reading my BBB complaint, the owner reached out to me to fix the situation. They refunded my money and sent me to the Hanover store to have the repairs redone. The person there immediately noticed the mistakes and knew what needed to be done. He re-​did everything beautifully and on time. I am still not sure what is going on in Foggy Bottom, but my experience resolving this issue was much better.

Got one shoe reheeled here for $ 15. After about a week and very little wear, it cracked so I went back thinking they would replace it, as a place that believes in customer service would do. Guess not. Definitely find another shoe repair.

Nice guys. Solid, honest craftsmanship. Highly recommended!

Kinda wish I had never brought my shoes here at all. You know when you have a nice pair of shoes and just one part starts to go bad… I figured it would be more cost effective to just get new insoles in my heels rather than buying a whole new pair.
When I brought them in, the guy agreed that he could take the old insoles out and put in new ones. However when I picked up the shoes, I could tell he had done a half-​ass job. The insoles were cut ragged and didn’t even cover the entire bottom of the shoe. Every time I put them on, I feel the edge of the insole with my little toe, and it is NOT a good feeling. These used to be my most comfortable pair of work shoes. What a waste of $ 20.

I’ve added before/​after photos of both pairs of boots that I just had re-​heeled. I think the Cobbler’s Bench did a good job fixing them. On pair of wedge boots are $ 130 new and I thought $ 25 for a re-​heel was completely reasonable. The other pair, that was completely worn through the rubber on one of the heels looks good, too. A vast improvement.
Although I am happy with the results, I can’t justify dolling out one of my much-​sought-​after ⁵⁄₅ ratings. The pricing just seems really inconsistent. The two other pairs of heels I brought in to be re-​heeled cost $ 15 each. One was a stiletto and the other had a lower, thicker heel. This time around, one pair of the boots cost $ 20 and the other was $ 25. I can kind of see why the wedges might be a little more because the actual rubber piece he used was a bit bigger than the others he had used on previous pairs. The black heeled pair threw me for a loop. When I asked him why he charged more, he said it costs more because the rubber piece is bigger. However, the heel was the same size (or maybe even smaller) than the low heels I brought in previously.
Overall, he did a good job and the quality of the repairs I got seem to be adequate. Plus, the proximity to my work is very convenient. My only suggestion is that they find a more consistent basis for pricing work. It’s like they can only deal in multiples of 5. Doesn’t it seem strange that there is a 25% price discrepancy in what is essentially the same work? I realize that special circumstances or extreme damage/​wear could affect the price, but something like re-​heeling or re-​soling should really cost about the same across the board… give or take a couple bucks.

I had two pairs of men’s shoes that needed repair. Each of the shoes needed new heel and toe taps, new leather inside the heel, and part of each hell replaced because of the amount of wear. The total cost for the two shoes was going to be $ 190. I was able to negotiate $ 170, which in my opinion is still quite high. The resulting work was good, but I think I will be looking in the suburbs for a cheaper shop.

I brought 2 pairs of lady shoes to replace heels. They told me $ 20 each but I knew one type was supposed to be $ 15.
You better find better place.

I don’t know why they are called shoe repair since apparently they don’t do repairs.
I brought a pair of shoes that needed some TLC all around (scratches in the leather, sole on the front of the shoe coming off, laces needing to be changed) and I was told, in a rather rude way, that the store didn’t «do laces» which is surprising for a shoe store, and that they would only fix the heel part of the shoe (which is the only part of my shoe that didn’t need to be fixed).
You are better off finding another place to have your shoes fixed.

Had a sqeek in my ferragamo heel — came in, they re-​nailed it. Charged me 15 dollars, got outside, and squeek started again. Told me then i needed to re-​glue it. Since i was pasing through, no time to leave it. However, if they didn’t fix it, thing to do would have been to refund the 15, don’t you think? Learn some business saavy peruvian dude.

I tried the Cobbler’s Bench out for the first time this week and unfortunately did not have as good of an experience as some other reviewers have reported. The shop is super stuffy and hot and the line for the Cobbler’s Bench moves incredibly slowly. I was just getting the tips of my heels repaired and asked if I could pick them up the next day (tuesday), he said no, but he could have them ready maybe by 5pm. I said not to worry about it and I would pick them up by noon on Wednesday.
I went in on Wednesday at 3pm, waiting in the same stuffy line, and when I got to the front he said «excuse me for a minute», and picked up a random pair of shoes which he proceeded to start buffing and working on. While I was waiting a man came into the shop and stood behind me in line, and I waited, and waited, and waited. About 15 minutes later when the fellow behind the counter finally turned his attention back to us he skipped me completely and went to the man behind me to look at the shoes. I tried to insert myself a bit and said «I am just here to pick up a pair,» and the employee said «I am helping him first» rather bluntly, borderline rude. I was in line first, why did this man who came in behind me deserve his shoes first? So I kept cool and continued to be ignored for this man whose business was obviously more important than mine. When it was finally my turn the employee took my ticket stub and started looking for my shoes, he couldn’t find them on the first shelf, and a confused look came over his face as he starting digging through piles of shoes that look like they had just been thrown in a heap, without any care. He searched all of the corners and shelves of the shop. Another 10 minutes passed. He finally found my shoes in a bag at the bottom of a heap of shoes in a crate. He unwrapped my shoes and said something like «can you give me 10 minutes to shine them?» REALLY? He then accused me of coming too early, and pointed to the ticket where he had written down 5pm on Tuesday and then scratched out the Tuesday but had forgotten to scratch out 5pm. I had no choice at this point so I found a bench to sit on while he finished my shoes.
By then end of it all I was pretty pissed, but it all could have been saved if the quality of the repair was good. The repair might be good, but I don’t know, I haven’t worn them yet. What I DO know is that I pulled them out while walking back to my office to take a close look and there is now a big, permanent, definitely visible crease line in the leather on the tops of my shoes where it looks like they were bent backwards in half at the bottom of the shoe mountain he found them under!
The result: I wasted around 45 minutes on an errand that should have taken 5, and my shoes are arguably in worse shape then when I brought them in.
Bottom line: save your $ 15 and find a better shoe repair shop. I certainly won’t trust them with my shoes again.

Never in my life did I ever imagine that I would need to go to a cobbler. So there I was, with $ 80 shoes that I loved, and they were about to die out on the soles.
I was torn between what cost would be worth the hassle and repair, or just simply buying a new pair. These guys quoted me $ 30 to fix the heels and souls, I bit on it. They completely replaced the bottoms of my shoes nicely… and shined them to boot. Pun intended.
I have my shoes back, was well worth the $ 30 job, and they look like the day I bought them, which is great considering they are broke in for my feet after a year of wear.
My experience was a good one: they were all smiles, polite, and efficient. I recommend.

I severely damaged a pair of healed wooden clogs. The cobbler fixed them up perfectly, and the total cost was only $ 40. I was very impressed!

It is a great shoe repair place, but it is not cheap and not fast. However, they do shoes other places refuse to take. I would not go here just to have your heels replaced, it can be done better and cheaper elsewhere. But they were able to fix my favorite pair of London boots that both had broken zippers and a deep scratch on a heel. They also polished and buffed the boots, they looked fantastic when I picked them up!

I’ve averaged out — Cobbler’s Bench did a 5 star job on my shoes. I took in my prized Moreschis, on which the stitching had come loose, as well as a bunch of other small problems. The repair is perfect and the bits they looked at are good as new.
However, they asked for a week to do them. Fine. But when I went back a week and a day later, they still weren’t ready. They would be done in twenty minutes, I was told, without much apology. This is not what you wait a week for — to have your shoes done while you wait when you come in to pick them up. That’s 1 star service.
Overall, they average out to 3 stars.

This place will become my new spot for cobbling or whatever it’s called. previous reviews are pretty spot on about the no frills transaction, except I think I had a better experience. They capped to pairs of heels for me on the spot, a pair of Coach leather pumps and Nine West boots. The whole thing cost about 25 bucks. They did shine both pairs of shoes but it was pretty speedy and bare bones. However, the guy did recommend some work for my boots that I hadn’t noticed and appreciated the input.
I would come here for basic to mid-​priced shoes. There was shoe polish and what not EVERYWHERE so I wouldn’t trust leaving a pair of anything nicer – no satin shoes or super high end designer stuff. But your basic K Street pump will be fine.

The cobbler’s bench offers shoe repair and general leather work, and the office space is shared with a watch repair person, drycleaners and a tailor. One stop shopping to fix everything in your closet!
I went during my lunch hour to have a pair of heel tips replaced. He was able to do it in 5 minutes for $ 10. Nothing to complain about. This location is also right by the metro if you want to coordinate drop-​offs/​pickups with your commute… however, the hours are a bit limited: 8:30−6.
NOTE: you must pay up front when you drop off.