Business Profile

Peter El Asmar

VILLAGE SHOE REPAIRS

Peter El-Asmar grew up in war-torn Lebanon in the mid-1970s, so it’s not surprising he likes peace and quiet. At his shoe repair business, tucked into the Village Shopping Centre at 43-45 Burns Bay Road, he’s continuing a trade he learned as a teenager.

When his parents brought 9 of their 11 children here in 1987, leaving two married daughters in Lebanon, Peter was one of the oldest in the family to come; the youngest was about 11 years old. Peter immediately appreciated the space in Australia which was much less crowded than Beirut. The family had lived in a war zone for 12 years.

What attracted you to Lane Cove?

I used to work in a shoe repair business in a busy Castle Hill shopping centre - it was so noisy. I was looking at opportunities in a few areas including in Bankstown, nearer to where I live, but I liked the quiet village atmosphere of Lane Cove and the people.

Who is your typical customer?

Middle-aged people, mainly ladies. Of course ladies buy many more pairs of shoes than men – that is something that has never changed!

What do you enjoy most about your business?

I get satisfaction when I fix a pair of shoes and make them look like new – completely different than when they came in. And I enjoy the mix of customers and working by myself. Customers are friendly and there’s a variety of work because people ask for all sorts of things to be repaired, not only shoes and bags and belts. Sometimes I’m asked to repair things like jewellery, and I do my best! Of course I do key-cutting and engraving, replace batteries in watches and other things and I sharpen knives, too.

What is something people mightn’t know about you?

I used to design women’s shoes when I was just a teenager. My brother and I stepped in to help in our fathers’ shoe factory in Beirut because the war meant there were no workers and war had also closed the schools. I started off as a machinist when I was 13, stitching the upper while my brother did the lower part. By the time I was 16, I was designing shoes, and very much enjoyed the drawing side. So I’ve been stitching and working with shoes for 40 years. Designing and manufacturing is only possible to do on a large scale these days, to go in big, and for that you have to be able to buy a lot of equipment and many, many lasts. It’s very difficult to make ranges of styles because every design requires a different last to shape the shoe ... there are lasts for different widths and for heights of heels and other features and then every one of those needs to be in different sizes, too.

How would you describe the current business environment?

It’s steady. Now everyone can buy shoes more cheaply so, in many cases, it means less repairs. But also there’s many people who find it hard to find a comfortable shoe – and they like to repair their favourite shoes no matter how old they are. Others get new shoes resoled straight away to protect them. There are always some customers who can afford to buy many pairs and bring in a different pair just about every month – one frequent customer says “don’t tell my husband”! The most expensive pair I have worked on, all sparkly with huge platforms, cost thousands of dollars – so the owner told me.

Four words you’d use to describe Lane Cove?

1. Quiet 2. Peaceful 3. Village 4. Friendly locals