BY LEONG Z-KEEN
KUCHING: Muslims will soon be celebrating Hari Raya Aidilfitri with their loved ones, many of them heading back to their hometowns in the coming days.
It is also a time for new clothing, food and beverages, as well as decorations. Even footwear.
You would think cobblers in the city would be bogged down by work with about two weeks left for Hari Raya. In reality this is not the case.
When New Sarawak Tribune spoke with Azmaniah Osman Abdullah, 54, a cobbler for 24 years near Wisma Satok, he wished for more customers to repair their shoes at his booth.
“I still have customers who seek my services but fewer compared to last year.
“Before this, there was a weekly bazaar near this area which became an attraction, but not many people visited the area after it was ended.
“Thus, my booth is slowly being forgotten by those who are not from the Satok area,” he said.
Fellow cobbler for 27 years, Lehe Sani, 59, also shared his unhappiness over the lack of customers to his booth.
“I just got around six to seven pairs of shoes to repair today, so my work will finish around afternoon.
“Back then, I used to get so many pairs of shoes until I needed an entire day to finish patching all of them but now, the demand is not quite there for me.
“I do hope that I can get more shoes of different models to fix over the next few days,” said Sani.
Besides that, Douglas Leong Shing Yee, 42, a cobbler at Leo-Cobbler for 15 years said there are customers although they prefer to seek his services at the last minute.
“Every year regardless of the festive season, we will get many requests from customers until we are at maximum capacity because we also accept orders from those who are not celebrating.
“In addition, we do provide services like slightly reshaping the shoe’s cutting if the customers request for it,” he said.
In contrast, 20 year old Mohd Assahari Indra, a cobbler at Wisma Satok for around five years, said he was getting more work compared to last year’s Hari Raya preparation.
“I received around 80 pairs of shoes with varying degrees of damages which need to be fixed.
“Still, I am also hoping for more customers to come and repair their footwear before celebrating the festive season”, Assahari added.
