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Since 1928

Nearly a century at the bench

Tulsa Shoe Rebuilders has repaired boots and shoes since 1928 and calls itself the oldest shoe shop in the city. This is its story, year by year, as the shop itself tells it.

Sepia panorama of Tulsa in 1909: brick storefronts, awnings, a streetcar and horse-drawn wagons
Tulsa in 1909, nineteen years before the shop opened. Archive photograph, not the shop.
  1. 1928

    A shoe shop opens in Tulsa

    The shop dates itself to 1928. “Established 1928” is printed on its order form, and “Satisfaction guaranteed since 1928” runs across its pages. From the start it worked in downtown Tulsa.

    Shop to supply Who opened the shop, under what name and at which address. The shop’s website does not say, so this page does not guess.

    Colour postcard of the Philcade Building, a tall brick office block in Tulsa, with 1930s cars and a bus on the street
    Tulsa in the shop’s first decades: the Philcade Building on a postcard printed between about 1930 and 1945. Archive image, not the shop.
  2. 1930s

    A photograph from the thirties

    The shop’s website lists a photograph of the shoe shop from the 1930s. It credits the picture to the Beryl Ford Collection / Rotary Club of Tulsa, Tulsa City-County Library and Tulsa Historical Society.

    Shop to supplyPhotos from the shop’s own archive: the 1930s photograph (with the archive’s permission), the old counter, the people who worked here.
    Black-and-white photograph of a shop window lettered “Selis Shoe Repairing”, with a sign reading “Don’t let rationing of shoes worry you! We have plenty soles and rubber heels and our prices remain the same”
    The trade in those years: the window of another shoe repair shop, photographed for the U.S. Office of War Information in April 1943. Not the Tulsa shop.
  3. To 2004

    The Kemp years

    For more than three decades the shop was owned by Otis C. and Ida Kemp. In the shop’s own words, the Kemps “really built the legacy of shoe repair in Tulsa and across the nation”.

    Mr. Kemp was more than an owner: he taught shoe repair, made cowboy boots himself, and had worked as a tradesman for more than 20 years besides. Both retired in August 2004.

    Rows of old shoemaker’s tools mounted on dark wooden boards: knives, awls, pincers, hammers and wooden lasts
    Tools of the cobbler’s trade: lasts, awls, pincers and hammers. A museum display in Massachusetts, not the shop’s bench.
  4. 2004

    Carried forward

    When the Kemps retired, the shop kept going. It describes its work today as carrying forward the name the Kemps built.

    Shop to supply The name of the current owner and a few words from them belong here.

  5. 2008

    Dance soles for a concert

    Not every job is a resole. In 2008 the shop fitted dance soles to the bottoms of sneakers for the New Kids on the Block concert at the BOK Center, a repair it sometimes does for dancing shoes too.

  6. 2009–2010

    Letters from across the country

    By now pairs were arriving by mail from far beyond Oklahoma. Customers in Missouri, Tennessee, Alabama, New Jersey, Mississippi and Colorado wrote to thank the shop.

    ...You all did a FANTASTIC job and exceeded my expectations in both quality and service...

    Matthew N., Montrose, CO. Customer letter, 2009–2010

    Among the mail-in jobs the shop shows on its website: a pair of 1986 Tony Lama rattlesnake boots sent in from Jackson, Mississippi, stripped down, re-welted, resoled and fitted with new diamondback skin. See how a restoration works.

  7. 2013

    From 4th Street to South Mingo Road

    Until May 2013 the shop stood downtown, at 4 West 4th Street. After repeated flooding there it moved to the Commerce Plaza Shopping Center at 55th Place and South Mingo Road, less than 12 miles from the old address.

    Address, hours and directions

  8. Today

    Still doing it by hand

    The shop’s cobblers average well over 30 years of experience. It is a member of the Shoe Service Institute of America, repairs more than 150 brands and takes mail-in work from across the US and Canada.

    The shop notes that shoe repair shops are closing in record numbers across the United States, and that those remaining are picking up the load. That is why the counter is open only three days a week: the team is in the back shop every day, working through orders.

    It also repairs footwear free or at a deep discount for charities and people doing charitable work that it knows.

    • 1928the year the shop dates from
    • 30+ yearsaverage experience at the bench
    • 150+brands repaired

About this page. Every date and name here comes from the shop’s current website. The photographs are free-licence archive images chosen for this demo and are captioned as what they are; none shows the shop or its people. The shop’s own photos would replace them.

Nearly a century in, still taking new pairs

Bring yours to the counter in Tulsa, or mail it in from anywhere in the US or Canada.

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