My Blue Suede Shoes

I love heels, and occasionally I can find a pair that is glamorous, shapely, high AND freakishly comfortable.  When this state of nirvana is achieved, I hold on for dear life.  

I wear said shoes constantly on the mean streets of Manhattan (at least, they are mean to shoes, not so much to people anymore), and thus the beloved shoes take quite a beating.  Nicks on the heel from inadvertently stepping in subway grates, scuffed toes, soiled leather...the indignities my poor clodhoppers endure are endless.  Therefore, I feel an obligation to provide them with excellent care. 

This is where Top Service, a shoe repair shop at 845 Seventh Avenue (between 54th and 55th Streets) comes in.  This phenomenal shop provides meticulous repairs for all types of shoes, and I am always pleasantly surprised by the modest amount they charge.  In fact, I'm fairly sure that I have never paid more than $12 for any one service, and I have brought some seriously beat down shoes in for repair.

They will go to impressive lengths to get your shoes looking like new.  I've had the entire skin on a pair of heels replaced ($8!), I've had leather restored, even boots altered.  However, I think the most impressive feat of theirs that I've ever witnessed was when the manager called Prada to get the actual satin used in a particular pump so that they could use it to recover the mangled heel of the shoe in question (this was clearly for another client, not me.  The only pair of Prada shoes I own are a very utilitarian black leather that I picked up on deep discount at an end of season sale at Saks).  

Top Service routinely makes it onto plenty of "Best of New York" lists, and apparently is the go to place for the Manolo Blahnik people.  I pretty regularly run into young women who seem to work as assistants for editors at fashion magazines, either picking up bags and bags of shoes for shoots, or just a few pairs for their high maintenance bosses, so I'm clearly not alone in my love and appreciation for this place.

To my mind, Top Service lives up to its name.  The place respects the customer, the product and the relationship between the two.  The guys are nice, the service is fast, and the prices are always reasonable.  Definitely a business worthy of everyone's support.