I am famously always in need of a new pair of shoes. It’s not that I own a lot of shoes- I could count how many pairs I have on one hand- but I just always go through them quite quickly. The pair that I’m wearing now are only a year old but already have holes in them and not even a centimetre of grip left, meaning slippery floors are a difficult obstacle to manage. And despite leaving my shoes outside my door each and every night while I sleep, a group of friendly gnomes has never come along to repair them. So I took matters into my own hands by visiting somebody who could fix them for me. And that somebody was Bella from The Cobbler Caballero in Potts Point.

Bella spoke to me about how she got into the cobbling profession through her dad, who moved from Chile to Sydney where he discovered his passion for shoes and fixing them. Now, Bella and her brother help run the very cute little shop while helping to train even more people to use the very big machine that she described as their “money maker”.

Before this interview, I was more or less unaware that cobbling was still a job that existed. But I have learnt well and truly that it has its place and plays an important role not only in making shoes more comfortable and durable, but keeping unnecessary waste out of landfill.