No business like shoe business: Lenny’s Shoe Repair in La Crosse closing its doors

Friday is closing day for a long-time business in north La Crosse.  Lenny’s Shoe Repair on Clinton Street will shut down at the end of business hours Friday afternoon, as repairman Lenny Matiak retires at the age of 80. 

He’s been working with footwear ever since being employed to shine shoes as a teenager in the 50’s, at George’s Shoe Shine on 5th. Lenny says he didn’t plan on such a long career, starting his own store after time in the service.

“If somebody said I’d be here 64 years…no way,” he tells us, “but one thing led to another. I enjoyed people, I enjoyed doing the work, and I enjoy tackling problems that the people had, and that’s how it went on.”

Lenny says he decided to close the shop now rather than spending time training someone else to keep the store going.  He says customers like to have old shoes fixed instead of automatically buying new, but repairs aren’t always worth the time and money.

“There’s a lot of stuff that comes in that shouldn’t be fixed,” he says, “’cause it’s a throw-away society…but I always find a way to figure something out.”

Lenny says that in retirement, “I can do what I want when I want,” and says now he’ll have more time to spend on his classic car collection. The shoe store repair store has been on Clinton for about 40 years.