Those cheap plastic sandals you got at Target? Not a candidate for a shoe repair shop (or what your grandparents called a cobbler) when they wear out. But quality footwear—nice leather loafers, spendy snakeskin stilettos—can and should be fixed up and preserved by a good repair business. A top outfit can save your soles with a range of techniques, and they might even be able to make them more comfortable to, er, boot.

Talk with a top-rated shop about price, how well the job can be done, and how long the shoes are likely to last. For jobs other than simple resoling and re-heeling, consult a few shops. You may find several ways to solve your problem—at substantially different costs. You also may get differing opinions as to how successfully the job can be done.

You’ll also want to compare costs from shop to shop. Our shoppers found prices sometimes differ dramatically. You can consult our ratings tables to find shops that quoted low prices to our shoppers—and to find shops rated highly by their customers.