Today we’d like to introduce you to Ron Luke Melissa George.
Hi Ron Luke Melissa, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Wow, loaded question! There is so much history here as we are celebrating 120 years being in business (same family) – started in 1905 my our great grandfather.
Currently Luke & Myself (melissa) own the business 50/50 and our Father (Ron) celebrated his last year of ownership last year (2024) he is still very much a part of running our shop today.
Luke and I both went to collenge and worked in other fields briefly but ultimately realized how much we missed being here, being creative and working with out hands and not sitting at a desk.
From a young age we went to work with our dad and we truly learned almost everything we know about operating our business and doing repairs from him.
When we started truly full time with our Dad we had recently moved our shop out of the last mall location (Rosedal mall where we were for 24 years) (our parents had 5 at one time in the malls) to our current location in Arden hills – we are actually prepping for a move within the next 2 weeks – still in Arden Hills but we expanding to a larger space about 2 blocks away from where we are now.
We have been throguh so much in the last 21 years in the spot, and when we started there were a lot of rough times financially as a buisness. Road construction and Covid had us having conversations about closing.
I (Melissa) cried so much about this, what a hard thing to talk about, closing down a passion and craft that is truly a dying trade today.
Well, obvuoiusly we made it through those years and today we are expanding and thriving! We went viral in May 2024 and things have just been getting better and better since.
Our team has grown, new challenges have come and we took on our first new shop demo/build together as owners. With Ron’s help it has been so fun to design and watch our dreams come true in real life.
Being able to have more space to be more efficient and help more people across the country is truly a blessing. Going Viral allowed us to reach custoemrs around the world and it has been a wild ride, but we are riding the wave as it comes.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
for the most part yes, we are so beyond lucky to work with family every day and still want to hang out outside of work – we truly can communicate and work together so well.
We have heard so many horror stories of familiues operating businesses together but we are a rare breed – so far so good
As I mentioned previoulsy road construction and covid were definitley the most challenging times we have ever faced and hopefully we will never go through something like that again in our lifetime.
Other challenges are having families -Luke has 3 kids – 13 – 8 – 4 and Melissa has 4 kids 20 – 6 and twins 4, having young kids and kids in activites poses challneges that we are grateful to have ron and our staff to help cover the gaps when we need to be present for our Kids
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
This is the fun part —- we are all talented in different ways and have our areas where we mainly work — the areas we truly shine!
Melissa is our wear all the hats from running the business to repairs – she specializes in the patching/sewing and custom department — working on designer handbags and custom fitting boots is one of her favorite specialties.
Luke is our trophy winning always learning new things guy – he has won the gold 2 times in the Shoe service Institute of America’s Silver cup contest (2021 & 2023) this contest showcases true talent from around north america – truly an honor to win this among some fantastic cobblers we look up to.
the award is for excellence in shoe repair craftsmanship – you repair 1 shoe back to factory quality while leave the mate untouched, truly an amazing accomplishment.
he has also been a stand out for customizing crocs – it all started with a customer who wanted a lug tread on her crocs because she runs marathons amoung other races in them, we posted the video and it hit over 3 million views — the flood of crocs started being mailed in from around the country.
the custoemrs got creative and started sending other styles in for custom sole work — turning nikes into bowliong shoes, sneakers with fun color soles and the list goes on
Among other repairs customers have been so fun to work with their ideas and creativity – we have done some fun boots with colored soles, stitching and truly creating one of kind footwear for people.
They say you spend most of your life in bed or on your feet so invest in your footwear and a mattress – we couldn’t agree more
If we knew you growing up, how would we have described you?
We were so lucky to grow up with 5 kids (Luke is number 3, Melissa is number 4) – we both would say we are the favorite child haha
Overall we were both good kids, didn’t get into trouble , luke was more mischevious as a young child – he once painted a random dog that was in our yard — we never found out who the dog belonged to.
We both played sports – our parents coached all of us throughout the years
Contact Info:
- Website: https://georgesshoes.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/georges_shoe_repair_mn
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GeorgesShoeRepair/
