Bao Shoemaker — Shoe Store in Victoria

Reviews of Bao Shoemaker

• Nicholas

  Added 2016.06.02

  Thank you Bao! You did an amazing job redesigning my leather tote. I couldn't be happier. I highly recommend Bao. Excellent craftsmanship and customer service.
• Nathaniel

  Added 2016.01.31

  Bao is an excellent teacher and shoemaker. I enjoyed learning from and working with Bao over the course of two seasons. Quality is very important to him and this shows in the care and detail he puts into creating stylish, lasting, comfortable shoes for a wide range of client needs. As a teacher he is very generous in passing on his knowledge of shoe craft.
• Christopher

  Added 2015.12.16

  It was like something out of a fairy tale. Cobbling away was the perfect little man with a big energy in his wee little shop stacked with little hammers, and rainbow leathers and buckles and footware of every shape and size. He makes a lot of them himself. From scratch!
• Elijah

  Added 2015.06.15

  Bao is funny. He is warm and kind. And he is brilliant with shoes. So I took in another pair. Then another, and another [I own a lot of shoes and since my feet haven't grown in 43 years, they have piled up and some have needed fixing.] Then my place of work changed and the floors were hard concrete. I brought in shoes and asked could Bao make the heels softer. No problem. I brought in shoes and asked could he put this type of heel on them. No problem. I brought in back pack and asked could he sew brown leather on it to make it match a pair of black and brown leather boots. No problem. Then I moved to Paris for a year. I took an expensive pair of Pilolinos black knee length boots with brown straps, gorgeous with a low enough heel I could walk the cobble stones and not break an ankle. I wore them only six times when I noticed at the end of a long day that the bottom of the right boot was gone. Gone! The white stuffing that pads the soles was coming out. I took it to a Parisian cobbler, a man in his sixties who had done no other work his entire life, "un veritable cordonnier." He took one look, asked me if I had walked in acid, and declared the boots unfixable. There was nothing to do but to throw them away. I couldn't believe it. They had cost well over three hundred dollars. Then, I thought of Bao. I said to myself, "If Bao tells me they can't be fixed, then I'll toss them." So I lugged the damn things all over Europe for months, and threw away some precious things so I could lug them back to Victoria. Boa's verdict? Sure! No problem! And he fixed them for CHEAP and I wore them all day today and they look PERFECT and the man is a GENIUS. He tells me he's charging me for hugs though. I've told him to put them on my tab. This guy is incredible. A real treasure.
• Luke

  Added 2015.03.01

  Best custom shoes at an excellent price. I have extremely wide feet which makes it hard for me to find shoes that fit. Bao made custom boots for me and went to great lengths to make sure they fit me perfectly. His workmanship is very good. He also built everything out of quality leather and used a Goodyear welt construction (they're built to last). I could not be happier.
• Adam

  Added 2014.08.22

  Took in a pair of 6 year old boots that I wore almost everyday and on several trips through snow, rain and mud. After so much wear and tear, the original rubber soles had started to crack. Bao was my last resort as I had taken my boots to two other cobblers who turned me away and told me to just give up and buy a new pair. Bao was able to replace both soles for under $100 and my boots look like new! I've taken any shoes needing repairs to him since and couldn't be happier with his work. His prices are affordable and his craftsmanship is excellent.
• Devin

  Added 2014.03.13

  Boa's little shop is on my route to work, where I try to walk most days. I walked past ages. This teeny, hole in the wall in a nondescript, low building didn't even register for the first few years, but slowly, over time, I noticed the sign in the door advertising shoe repair, saw the open doorway and could just make out the murky interior and the floor to ceiling rungs of shoes, shoes, shoes. I made a mental note: if you need shoes fixed.... So I took a pair.