He thinks his sole stitcher could be 80 years old. One friend or another ... In the '60s, the Metry family had four shoe repair shops: in Redfern, Coogee, Belfield and Fairfield.

Instead, you visit the store to get an old pair of sneakers repaired or ... In the U.S., for instance, there were 100,000 shoe repair shops in 1930; today there are fewer than 5,000.