Quotes by Michael Montalto

“These shoes are great. They dont look every fashionable, but they feel good.”

“Some people think a shoe has to be skin tight to fit, which is not the case. Some people want me to stretch their shoe up another shoe size, but thats something I cant do.”

“Its probably a size 55. This is a project my grandfather and I did in the 70s one snowy winter when we were bored.”

“Were pretty busy up until the first week in December. It winds down after that because people have other things in their mind, but thats fine with me since I like taking the week off between Christmas and New Years.”

“Im on the hunt now for a bigger facility because half of my shop is in my garage. I would like to have a nice retail area that would sell comfortable shoes.”

“I started in my grandfathers shop in New Haven years ago. I was kind of a troublemaker, so as punishment my mom would make me help him. I was 12 or 13 years old at the time, and I took a liking to it. So I guess you can say Ive been paying for my sins for 43 years!”

“I came here [Madison] about 20 years ago. In fact, this shop has been here longer than I; this was a cobbler shop before me.”

“I would be here 10 hours a day and spent another four hours repairing the machines. You have to replace them, you know, so you can be more efficient.”

“This business isnt as dead as everyone thinks it is. I go to seminars dealing with new machinery and how to fix new shoes that are coming out on the market.”

“The shoes dont make themselves. You have to be creative to make sure the shoe will fit properly afterwards.”