An Italian cobbler still has tread in the trade, even as it fades

“What do you want to be when you grow up?”

The age-old question seems impossible to answer. There is a domino effect of fear and doubt — endless possibilities await, but the uncertainty of the unknown is ever-present. For Mario Gagliardi, there was never an opportunity to second guess his future.

“Where I come from, when we reach the fifth grade, we don’t have no more school to go any higher,” Gagliardi said. “So you have to learn something, you know — tailor, mason — so I choose shoe repair.”

Gagliardi was 12 when he started learning the cobbler trade as an apprentice under his uncle. He was born and raised in the city of Matera, Italy, but his parents eventually decided to move to America for more opportunity. The family immigrated first and Gagliardi followed in 1964, via a nine-day boat ride from Naples. 

As a young adult, Gagliardi left Utica for Rochester to continue his craft, working for a shoe repair shop in Westgate Plaza for seven years until leaving due to a shifting landscape. 

“I changed my job because shoe repair was declining all the time,” he said.

The decline Gagliardi experienced in the 1960’s never changed course. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the height of the trade was in the Great Depression Era with an estimated 100,000 to 120,000 shops. Today, that number is around 3,500.

Gagliardi worked at Kodak until his retirement in 1998. Decades after leaving the cobbler industry, Gagliardi got a call from a friend, Al Riolo, asking for help. Ten years prior, Riolo opened Al’s Monroe Shoe Service at 985 Monroe Ave.

“I met him right away the first day I came here in Rochester,” said Gagliardi. “He used to come help us at Westgate.”

Gagliardi took over the business in 2014 after Riolo passed away. Twelve years later, he’s still operating out of the same location, a space that could be described as ‘the size of a shoebox,’  every shelf, drawer and corner filled with anything from shoes to be worked on to new soles and replacement heels.

“It’s not a good system,” he laughed. “But, I know where everything is.”

Gagliardi can fix, as he described, “anything with leather,” from resoling a worn pair of Birkenstocks to replacing heels and repairing belts or purses. He’s careful to never bite off more than he can chew and mindful to keep the most important tools — his hands — in working condition.

Over the years, Gagliardi said he’s occasionally had younger people come in looking to learn the trade, which he politely declines.

“I don’t have the time to teach them and there is no money in this,” Gagliardi said.

It took six years of apprenticeship under his uncle before Gagliardi went out on his own in Italy. At 87 years old, it is not the money that keeps his doors open — he frequently credits his retirement from Kodak for the ability to continue operations. It is the joy of the craft and helping people that keeps Gagliardi coming back five days a week to the storefront that still features Al’s name.

“He was my friend and he learned just like me,” Gagliardi said. “He started when he was a little kid in Sicily.” 

It’s been nearly 75 years since Gagliardi decided to learn the trade, build a life that took him to a new country, get out of the cobbling industry and go back again. The shoemaker “Mario Gagliardi,” as he proudly stated through his thick-as-leather Italian accent, still hasn’t worn through his passion.

“I can’t wait in the morning to get up and come here,” he said. “I love this.”

Roberto Felipe Lagares is CITY’s multimedia reporter and has an unruly amount of film cameras on his person at all times. You can follow him @bertoscamera.