Jobs that are disappearing but still needed MARCJANNA

Jobs that are disappearing but still needed MARCJANNA HELIŃSKA

Shoemaking is the process of making footwear in a shoe repair shop. Footwear can be made of leather, wood, rubber, plastic or other materials. Shoemakers use tools: twine, lasts, hammers, pins. Bootmaker makes footwear (for example: high hells, boots, sandals) or repairs broken shoes, stitches or glues them, elongates them. Shoemaking developed in antiquity. Formerly shoes were made only by hand. These days handheld shoemaking has been superseded by manufacturing output. Until the 19 th century, shoemaking was a traditional handicraft, but by the century's end, the process had been almost completely mechanized. Famous shoemakers are: • Raymond Lewis Wildsmith, • Christian Louboutin, • Salvatore Ferragamo. The patron saint of shoemakers is Saint Crispin.

The advantages and disadvantages of being a shoemaker Advantages: • developing passion - for example by designing shoes, • peaceful but not boring job, • useful skills, • good earnings, • can set up own shoe repair shop. Disadvantages: • time-consuming job, • decreasingly customers, • few schools and shoe repair shops to learn this profession, • it is difficult to get a job in a shoe repair shop.

Disappearing… Shoemaker profession is dying out. Now very few artisans are engaging in shoemaking. Soon probably there will not be shoemakers. This profession has been dying because people prefer to buy cheaper shoes than those made in shoe repair shops. We can often change them when they are not trendy or when they are broken. Shoes are always available in shops. We do not have to wait for their making. We do not care for indestructibility. Also, it is not an easy job. You have to learn a lot. There are not many schools and shoe repair shops to learn this profession. Owing to technological progress shoes are produced in factories. Artisans are replaced there by machinery.

…but still needed. The shoemaker profession is still needed. People can fix shoes in a shoe repair shop, they do not have to throw them away, especially if they were expensive. Shoes bought at the cobbler are tough. They are trimmer and more polished than those from a shop. Shoemakers also make shoes for some designers.