Detroit Cobbler Moe Draper Serves All Souls
(Photo: Karpov The Wrecked Train, Photo via Detroit Free Press)
"Cobblers are supposed to repair everyone’s shoes whether they have the money or not," Moe Draper tells The Detroit Free Press.
In the unheated concrete-block he rents in Detroit’s open-air Eastern Market, Draper serves anyone who needs shoes repaired, regardless of whether they can pay.
Just a few years ago, Draper himself was homeless. For four months in 2010 he lived in his truck and shoe repair store downtown because he had nowhere to go. So he knows first hand how important shoes are for the needy.
Which is why Draper chose to learn the craft of cobbling after 15 years of shining shoes. First he researched how to become a tradesman. Then he attended industry association classes to practice.
(Photo: Shaker Works West)
This past Christmas, Draper even started a holiday shoe drive for the homeless, called Saving Soles. He tells Crain’s Detroit, “Cobblers are supposed to be a part of the community, help everyone. That’s the history.”
“The biggest problem for homeless people isn’t hunger. When it’s cold like it is outside now, their feet callous up. Their shoes get wet and collect water. Then they fall asleep and it freezes overnight. The skin splits and it causes pain. If you see homeless people who have limps but no cane, a lot of them are limping because of their feet,” he explains.
Each week thousands of people flock to Eastern Market for its Saturday Market to enjoy one of the most authentic urban adventures in the United States.
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The market and the adjacent district include more than 250 independent vendors and merchants processing, wholesaling, and retailing food. At the heart of Eastern Market is a six-block public market that has been feeding Detroit since 1891. Every Saturday it transforms into a vibrant marketplace with hundreds of open-air stalls. Everyone from toddlers to tycoons enjoy the strong conviviality served up along with great selections of fruits, veggies, fresh-cut flowers, homemade jams, maple syrups, locally produced specialty food products, and pasture and grass-fed meat.
This is where Draper rolls up the metal window of his tiny shack in Shed 4, shines shoes for free and repairs them starting at $25.
(Photo: Detroit Eastern Market)
Draper has a lot of gratitude. He recounts the story of a man who once tried to rob him. “I told him that basically he would set a record for the dumbest thing possible for robbing me. I said, ‘You’ll be so frustrated to see how much money is in my pocket right now.’ I think I only had like $10. I told him he’d get more out of letting me repair his shoes for free than he would if he robbed me. … He’s a paying customer now. … I’ve had more people talk about me for giving them free service, and I believe that’s why good things have come to me.”
(Photo: Karpov The Wrecked Train, via the Detroit Free Press)
"We’ve gotten so many blessings just because we help people out,”says Draper’s wife, Aziza. “We have a client named Mike who is blind as well as physically disabled—he uses a wheelchair. He does not drive. My husband never charges him; we just take care of his shoes and his kids’ shoes for free. So he comes out to us on [the Saturday before Christmas], and he actually brings us a huge box of food for our family and … toys for the kids and more food so we can have a holiday meal. This is someone who can’t even do for himself. It’s just a blessing that we got.”
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(Photo: Kristen Jordan Shamus, Detroit Free Press)
Kindness begets kindness. Strangers have also donated heaters to the Drapers, whose two small children work with them out in the cold on Saturdays. The heaters keep the little Drapers warm and the stand temperature-controlled so that the leather can be correctly repaired.
Draper aims to run the Saving Soles shoe drive year-round. This past holiday season, he began a partnership with Planet Aid, which reuses and recycles donated clothing and shoes to people in poverty around the world.
Draper estimates that he does $10,000 in charitable repairs each year. “You don’t get rich, but you feel good after you do what you do,” says the shoemaker.
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