The Small Business Spotlight: Jose Lopez of Waco Shoe Hospital
In this "Small Business Spotlight," presented by American Bank, Austin Meek of Waco Business News highlights cobbler Jose Lopez of Waco Shoe Hospital.
This marquee sign hangs over Jose’s work area at Waco Shoe Hospital.
"My name is Jose Lopez. I run Waco Shoe Hospital. I come from Mexico."
The exterior of Waco Shoe Hospital at 2505 N. 18th Street, largely unchanged since 1937.
I've always loved the dilapidated Neon shoe floating above the facade of Waco Shoe Hospital. It looks like an invisible giant lives on the roof and is taking its first step towards 18th Street. Some of these Waco businesses just ooze with story, and a squeaky heel on one of my boots prompted me to visit Jose for the first time last month. I had no idea I was walking into a history lesson spanning the last hundred years.
"The founder was Italian man, Anthony Vitrano. He start the business in 1919 on Austin Avenue. In 1937, he transferred the business from Austin Avenue to North 18th, same location since 1937: 2505 N. 18th."
At the same time Anthony was cobbling in Waco, Jose was learning the tricks of the trade in Leon, Mexico.
"I start to put attention to shoes when I was six year old. I learn every step how to make it and that's the way I grew up, in small factories seeing step-by-step the way they make boots, shoes."
Eventually, Jose brought his talents to Waco where he worked at the Montoya Shoe Factory on N. Valley Mills. He was always looking for extra work in those child-rearing days so he moonlighted with a bootmaker in Meridian, Mr. Lino Trujillo, who came from Jose's hometown in Mexico and made boots for Movie stars.
The commute became burdensome on his family so eventually, Jose started asking around for cobbler work in Waco. That's when he found Waco Shoe Hospital and began working for it's owner, a Czech man who'd purchased the business from Anthony, and who six months later offered to sell the business to Jose.
"I told him, 'Give me time.' So I worked like, maybe, four jobs."
Eventually, Jose bought the business for $15,000 - a moment of enduring pride, even to this day.
"He gave me time to pay him, like seven years. But I continued to work harder and three, four jobs. And maybe in seven, eight months, fully paid. This is one of my glories."
Fresh from buffing and trimming, these boots are ready to be returned to their owners.
Jose's joy in his work is intoxicating - "This is the buffer, this is the trimmer. Now I put the soles on the machine I use for..."
As he showed me his machinery, moving more deftly than any time before that morning, I imagined him as a six year old, running across the factory floor in raptures of ecstacy thinking of all the beautiful things that could be made.
He showed me two pairs of boots he was fixing, both having issues with the heel. One was a gaudy version, the feet covered in tan fish scales, the other a beat down pair of Ariats.
"I'm not scared to work. If you don't have the talent, you don't have the materials, you don't have a business."
Now aged 66, Jose realizes his success isn't based on talent alone - it's the helpful pieces of information he's gathered along his entrepreneurial journey.
"I know all the secrets, how to fix it. When somebody come with shoes, they explain to me what kind of problem they have. I figure out right away how to fix it because I learn from the bottom."
Jose Lopez will retire soon - but not yet.
That special knowledge comes with a price. Jose's spine is curved, having peered down into shoe heels for decades. The skin of his leathered hands have come to resemble the boots he fixes, and his arms don't generate the same force they used to.
"That's not what I want, retire. My body does not have the same push so that's why I want to work, yes, but not sacrifice myself too much."
After 60 years of cobbling, Jose is stitching the final threads of his story so you're in luck if you have a squeaky heel like I did. After 60 years of cobbling, he hasn't declared an end date - but he knows it's coming. And when it does, he'll finally get to put his feet up for a well-deserved rest.
This "Small Business Spotlight,” co-produced by Waco Business News and KWBU, first aired on Friday, December 4, 2020, in Episode 94 of Downtown Depot on 103.3 KWBU-FM Waco.