Andrew “Buddy” Scallia, 73-year-old owner of Buddy’s Shoe Repair, said he felt the years of stress melt away when he learned his son was coming home to take over the family business.
As he bustled around the Hixson store recently, Mr. Scallia said that with the additions of his son, Michael, and grandson, Aaron Yarbrough, to the roster, the family business will enter a fourth generation of service in this industry.
“I have been working in here for 64 years, and we were gonna slow down, get ready to get out,” said Mr. Scallia, whose grandfather James Dee founded the business of making shoes and then repairing them in 1906 in Sandusky, Ohio. In 1917 the family moved the shop to Chattanooga at Mitchell and Main.
Some Chattanooga shoe repair shops* Buddy’s Shoe Repair5221 Hixson Pike870-8911* Hakky Shoe RepairUpper level of Hamilton Place mall892-6167* Kenton’s Shoe Shop802 Broad St.756-3726* Shoe Findz and repair6210 Ringgold Road894-4402Source: J.H. Cook and Sons Inc., a shoe supplies distributor