Custom Made Shoes

Meet Pooler. I don't know if it's his first name or last name. He didn't tell me and I didn't ask.

Pooler repairs shoes and builds custom shoes in a tiny shack somewhere between Captain Cook and Ka'u. I've driven by his "Shoe Repairs" sign many times without stopping.

Today, Chris and I stopped. That's how we met Pooler, a short man in a black leather vest, jeans, and tatoos. He's missing a lot of teeth (I spotted a bunch of them piled in an astray on his work table) and greeted us barefooted. He looks to be somewhere between 50 and 60 years old.

Pooler charges about $150 for a pair of personalized sandals and $700 for a pair of personalized boots. He said he's swamped with work.

"I'm here at 6 a.m. and I'm still working at midnight," he said.

He let me and Chris wander around his workshop, which is no bigger than the size of a toolshed, and showed us a boot he was working on. Part of it was made out of elephant ear.

"Elephant ear?" Chris said. "How do you get an elephant ear?"

"Well you just jump up on the elephant and cut it off," Pooler replied.

He said he gets many visitors like me and Chris -- folks that have driven by before and stop on a whim to find out what his place is all about.

The doors to his shack are lined with pictures of boots he's made. Being the only guy on the island that does this, I guess he's generated a small amount of fame. Posing in a pair of black boots with the logo of the U.S. Congress was Rep. Neil Ambercrombie. (I remember his successful re-election campaign some years back; everyone seemed to have a bumper sticker that read: ABC, Ambercrombie Back to Congress).

According to his business card, Pooler will duplicate or fix any type of shoe. But he admitted to us that he's been forced to be more selective because of the heavy workload.

"It's hard to start charging people more. Some of these people who want their shoes repaired hardly have any money anyway," he said.