Gary Shoemaker Restores Community, One Sole at a Time

A quiet, cold air settled over Gary’s nearly abandoned mall, interrupted only by the faint creak of a door and the muffled sounds of its only open store. Down the hall, the squeak of worn soles echoed as customers rushed toward Anthony Rayford’s shoe repair shop, where he worked alone.

“It’s a shame what happened to this place,” one customer said as he handed Rayford several pairs of shoes.

The hallway was as cold as winter itself, but Rayford kept three space heaters around his workspace at Anthony’s Shoe Repair to warm himself and his customers.

“I provide heat for myself and my customers so we can continue to operate,” Rayford said. Despite the dark environment, his window was filled with orders that he promised to deliver within the next few days.

The village, once a thriving commercial center in Glen Park, had seen better days. Yet therein lies Rayford’s craftsmanship. Surrounded by display cases filled with shoes, handbags and belts, his deft hands moved with precision, putting decades of expertise to work for his community. In a space where remnants of lost prosperity persisted in every corner, Rayford had created a workshop that restored worn objects and instilled a sense of value and meaning.

His work proved that even in decline, a purpose could endure.

Carrying a Family Legacy: From the West Side of Chicago to Gary

Originally from Chicago’s West Side, Rayford grew up surrounded by the art of shoemaking.

His father and three uncles were shoemakers and taught the trade at Dunbar High School, a vocational high school on Chicago’s South Side. The eldest of his brothers and cousins, and eager to preserve the family heritage, he becomes the only one to learn the trade.

When he came home from school, he would go to the store to learn how to shine shoes, make leather bags, and repair shoes. Once he was old enough, his father told him it was time to earn money for the skills he was learning.

“It’s a job that I enjoy,” he says. “It’s my passion.”

After that, he managed all of Sam the Shoe Doctor’s stores and other shoe repair shops in town. Having a background in business management, he knew he wanted to open his own business.

“I started out not working for anyone,” he said with a laugh. Seeing how much the city was changing, especially as a father of five boys, he looked at several places to settle down and open his business.

And in 2015, that’s what led him to join Gary.

Faith and Courage

When Rayford started Anthony’s Shoe Repair at the Market City Flea Market on Cleveland Avenue, he began shining small shoes to demonstrate his skills to the local community.

“Sometimes you have to start at the bottom to get back to where you need to be, and that’s what I did,” Rayford said.

Without financial help, he relied on his faith to guide him.

“I have a very close relationship with God, and that relationship with God has no limits to what I want to accomplish,” he said.

“Gary has supported my business and I wouldn’t take that away from Gary.”

Anthony Rayford

After seeing a machine needed for shoemaking for sale, he drove more than 70 miles to begin the next part of his plan.

Placing the machine in his garage, he would take shoes from the market and work them with the appropriate materials that could show the full extent of his expertise. For almost a year, he would take home the shoes people brought him and rework them after work hours to build up a clientele in the city. Working quickly, he returned the shoes to customers the following week so they wouldn’t have to wait as long for repairs.

“People saw that I had talent and they were very impressed with my work,” he said. “(They) had a lot of confidence (in me) and knew I wasn’t going anywhere in their shoes.”

Through his work, extensive marketing and word of mouth, he began to build a steady clientele. Even though summer is his slow season, the community provides enough to keep him busy.

The village

Wanting to expand and have a larger location to do more work, he began looking for locations in the city that would be accessible to community members. The Village seemed like the perfect place.

Built in 1955 as a thriving economic center, The Village was once home to major retailers like JCPenney, Kroger and Montgomery Ward. Even in the 1990s and early 2000s, it remained bustling with stores like Foot Locker, Footaction and the famous costume store Tom Olesker’s, which once hosted Chicago Cubs Hall of Famer Ernie Banks , who threw baseballs off the roof. Other stores, including Rainbow, Radio Shack and a nail salon, kept the center bustling with activity.

But over the past decade, the Village has descended into a state of quiet desolation, its once-bustling corridors now mostly vacant spaces. Today, the mall is reduced to six stores: a children’s dentist’s office, a hot dog shop, a truck driving school, an Ashley Stewart, a dry cleaner and a Rayford shoe repair shop.

Having seen the mall’s evolution, Rayford knew he wanted a location that needed a bit of attention and could provide a central location for customers. He moved to the Village just before the pandemic and gained customers looking for a new shoemaker.

Commitment to customers

When it came to attracting new customers and growing his business, he adhered to two ideologies: keeping his business in Gary and helping every customer.

His store offers everything from repairing heels and stretching shoes to zippers on shoes, bags and other clothing.

“It’s basically about keeping something in the community that has helped you along your journey,” he said proudly. “Gary has supported my business and I wouldn’t take that away from Gary.”

In his eyes, if it’s not broken, then why fix it? He would have to settle down and redo all the work he did in his workshop. And at 62, he wants to focus on doing as much work as possible and making sure every client feels supported and satisfied.

“There are a lot of things I have to deal with as a business owner, but it’s always a common courtesy that you have to show as a business owner,” Rayford said. “There are people who don’t always agree with you, but I don’t argue with them. That’s all you want me to do.

Having been in the business long enough, he knows that it is easier to solve the problem and perform the service than to go back and forth. Being able to deal with and communicate with people allowed him to keep a level head, even in times of frustration.

“You just have to know what you’re talking about and give them what they want, but not do it to the point where it costs you,” he said.

Every day, he sees dozens of customers filling his workshop with materials that he hopes to return to them by the end of the week. Winter being his busiest time, he sometimes has to arrive early or stay late to make sure everything is completed.

“When a person brings me a pair of shoes here, I don’t care if they’re the most classic shoes on the block – you ask me to fix them, I’ll fix them,” he said.

Fortunately or unfortunately, as his business has grown and he’s not one to turn down a project, he’s now at the point where he needs help.

Starting a new legacy

Rayford hopes to pass his craft on to the next generation, but only one of his sons has expressed interest in joining him in the workshop. Just as his father taught him how to make money through shoemaking, Rayford is determined to pass on that legacy.

“It’s always another way to elevate yourself: teaching someone else how to do something you’re passionate about,” he said.

Rayford noticed his son’s interest in hydro-dipping, a technique for adding intricate designs to athletic shoes. Inspired, he taught himself how to airbrush shoes and practiced on a friend’s pair.

Impressed by his son’s skills, he makes it his mission to perpetuate this legacy with him.

“It’s about reaching a soul, and then that soul can convince their friends to try it,” he said.

In addition to teaching within the family, he also hopes to teach this profession to other young people in the community. Whether by winning a scholarship to teach the profession or by following the path taken by his predecessors, he hopes to pass on this passion to everyone.

“If you’re ready to learn and you want to get into it, put your heart into it,” he said. “It’s not a middleman because you will be faced with certain things.”

For Rayford, shoemaking is more than a skill: it’s an art form.

“A real shoemaker can take a shoe apart and put it back together without any problem,” he says with pride.

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