He comes to you to fix your shoe

Ladies, you now how it is. Those high heels in the display window catch your eye and your heart skips a beat. They're cute. They're chic. They'll make you the envy of all your friends.

You buy them and rush back to the office to show them off. But after two hours, you're in agony, ready to chuck them out the window.

It's women like that who inspired Alan Weinstein to start a mobile shoe repair business: Gepetto -- I Fixa Da Shoes.

He goes to people's homes and works his magic to make footwear a better fit for the wearer. Most visits last about an hour with the first step learning what problems the person has encountered.

Got a bunion? He lifts the leather to keep pressure off it. Toes too tight? He makes extra room in the toe box. Bad arches? He puts in better padding.

"It's been my experience that the more expensive the shoe, the more it hurts," Weinstein said. "A pair of Gucci's run $350 and up. They look great but when a girl wears them, well, after two or three hours, they're screaming."

Weinstein, who says the closest he gets to being Italian is eating Mediterranean food, established Gepetto -- I Fixa da Shoes in September. The major selling point of his service is that he comes to the customer's home.

When launching his business, he searched the Internet for a cartoon character to use for Gepetto. But media giant Disney owns the rights to the "Pinocchio" movie co-star so his company logo relies on a distinctive font instead.

When his rust-colored Isuzu Rodeo pulls up, it's filled with all the tools he'll need: A hole puncher for straps; stretchers; A metal cup apparatus that lifts the leather in the toe area; All types of insoles; And a ball and ring device to stretch the leather.

After he has the shoe fitting correctly, he sprays it with a special fixative so it holds the new shape.

Gepetto -- I Fixa Da Shoes is too new a business to forecast how Las Vegas will respond to it. But much of his work, Weinstein said he expects, will be cosmetic, like refurbishing suede or minimizing scuff marks.

When a shoe requires extensive repairs, he takes it home to the workbench in his three-car garage. Such repairs include new heel lifts, caps, stitching -- he has an industrial grade sewing machine -- and replacing soles. The latter may sound involved but for Weinstein it's a pretty simple matter.

"It's like fixing a flat tire," he said. "This is not brain surgery."

Weinstein has been in the shoe business for more than 30 years. A native Chicagoan, he began working in sales at Neiman Marcus as a sophomore in high school. Later, he owned and operated his own shoe store "Goody Two Shoes" for a number of years. Much of his work required "working" the shoes to better fit the person. One customer had to buy two pairs of shoes because she had feet two different sizes, so he alerted her to upcoming sales.

His mentor in Chicago was a gentleman named Hershey Chalmers, a master shoe repairman who taught Weinstein the tricks of the trade.

Weinstein moved to Las Vegas with his wife, Linda, and sons, Danny, 16, and Mitchell, 12, seven years ago. They live in Summerlin South.

He said many cocktail waitresses and casino workers could benefit from his service and he plans to meet with the Teamster and Culinary unions to see about advertising to their members.

Gepetto -- I Fixa Da Shoes is not a full-time job for Weinstein. He plans to keep his day job, which is working in major department store where he, no surprise, "Sells-a da Shoes."

Gepetto -- I Fixa Da Shoes can be reached at 375-6662 or by e-mail at SHUUZR4U2@aol.com.


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