My Shoemaker is More Awesome Than Your Labradoodle

photo: via Brooklynometry (they sell this shit there!)

At FIPS, we like to mock shit. 

I mean, whatever, it's Slope, so it's kinda easy, y'know?  But just because we hate you and your stroller in our favorite bar, doesn't mean we don't totes love our unsung neighborhood heroes.

Today: Roman the shoe repair guy at Roman's Expert Shoe Repair on Windsor Place and Prospect Park West (yeah, it's probably Windsor Terrace blah blah whatever, go skip your Coop shift to cry about it).

I'm 4'11" - that's 150cm for all you hot Euros from the Meatup -- which means that my ass is on four inch heels like six days a week to make myself tall enough to be counted among the human race. That means I wear down my shoes faster than you can say "Jonathan Safran Foer."   

Roman is my knight in shining yarmulke. I can walk straight from the train at like 6:30pm, pull my forlorn shoe right off my foot, and dude will have that shit fixed in record pace for five bucks.

So, raise a shot glass to Roman. He's probably not reading this, but I want to say thank you, buddy. Even if I need foot surgery before I'm twenty-five (note: my window looks out onto a podiatrist's office....coincidence or Twilight Zone? nuhnuhnuhnuhnuhnuhnuhnuh), I know my shoes will always be in tip-top shape.  

You're my hero, Roman.