I was faced with the dilemma of buy­ing a new pair of dress shoes, replac­ing my dear Ecco’s, or hav­ing them repaired. I first bought them about four years ago because I was devel­op­ing plan­tar fasci­itis, caused by wear­ing poorly designed dress shoes while pound­ing the city streets to and from work. My doc­tor pre­scribed insoles and rec­om­mended I get a pair of Ecco’s: my feet haven’t stopped thank­ing me since

I finally decided to get them repaired. They were already bro­ken in and it would save me some cash instead of buy­ing a new pair. I also didn’t want to throw them away because the issues were only cos­metic. I skipped the local shops and wanted to see what repair ser­vices Ecco would offer. They make a great prod­uct and have a loyal fol­low­ing so I fig­ured they’d know best on how to fix them. What bet­ter way to retain cus­tomers, that already have your product?

I went online and quickly found them. I was some­what dis­ap­pointed that they’d out­sourced the repair to NuShoe, but they’re a rep­utable com­pany, pro­vid­ing their ser­vices to oth­ers as well. Their sup­port team explained they would ship me a bag to put my shoes in, which included my order form and receipt. My shoes def­i­nitely needed the outer soles replaced along with leather repair. That would cost $75 along with new insoles, laces and any­thing else. So here’s the dam­age prior to shipment.

Left shoe: scratches and gen­eral wear and tear on leather

Right shoe: notice­ably worn out leather near sole

Fol­low­ing is where most of the dam­age was on my shoes. It ain’t easy liv­ing in the city.

Left shoe front: sole is thinned out, leather rubbed off

Right shoe front: this is pretty bad. Sole is rubbed off and the leather is scream­ing for a new hide

I was able to keep track of the repair online, check­ing when they were received, expected return date, etc. A very smooth process. Also, their sup­port staff was respon­sive. After about two weeks, I got them back and couldn’t be happier.

Right shoe

Left shoe

Now the real test

Left shoe front

Right shoe front: def­i­nitely an improve­ment. The leather looks reconditioned

I really like these shoes and was able to restore them, adding another 4 or 5 years to them, and didn’t com­pro­mise with its pre­vi­ous qual­ity and com­fort. I could have bought a new pair of the same model, but these weren’t that bad off, not worth toss­ing to the trash heap. Also, choos­ing Ecco’s repair ser­vice was def­i­nitely the right choice rather then a local cob­bler. Ecco knows their prod­uct and are best trusted to repair­ing it.

If you’re look­ing to do get your shoes repaired, I’d rec­om­mend check­ing first with who­ever your brand is. They prob­a­bly offer this ser­vice as well. So think twice when you’re about to toss out those $100 shoes, they may have some­thing left in the tank.

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Categories: Men's Style Guide

Tags: dress shoes, Ecco shoes, mens dress shoes, mens dress shoes repair, plantar fasciitis, resole shoes, resoling, shoe cobbler, shoe leather repair, shoe repairing, shoe tips