The time may be right, and the writing may be on the wall, but John Phillion, owner of Stevenson’s Shoe Clinic in downtown Victoria will be the first to tell you it doesn’t make turning the lights off for the final time any easier.
When Phillion locks the door this afternoon on the 97-year-old business, it will mark the final nail in the sole of a Fort Street fixture.
“I haven’t slept very well for the last month,” he said, noting the idea of shutting down and retiring is bittersweet.
For Phillion, 69, it’s the end of his working days after nearly 50 years of fixing shoes, but it’s also the end of the family business after nearly a century.
The company was established at 616 Fort St. in 1925 by Alec Stevenson — Phillion’s father’s uncle. Phillion’s father, Jack, started working in the store in the 1930s and bought it in 1955.
In 1983 it moved down the street to 660 Fort St., the old Times Colonist building, and then after John Phillion bought it from his father in 1984 it moved for the last time and settled at 714 Fort St. in 1987.
There’s no one reason for the decision to close and retire, but Phillion said things changed through the pandemic.
Downtown offices were largely empty for much of the last two years and they have yet to return to their full capacity and may never, which has had an impact on people dropping in to have shoes fixed or to pick up supplies.
It also means a change in what people wear for work, as they tend not to require dress shoes to pad around their homes.
“But the biggest difficulty is staff,” he said.
Phillion said his staff are the “heart and sole” of the store and the craftsmen he has working with him — Russ Hunt and Devi Banger — are past retirement age.
“The staff is ready to go, there’s no doubt about that,” he said, noting the two men have been working there since the 1970s. “One of them stayed on a month longer because I needed more time.”
Phillion said finding skilled craftsmen to replace them has been next to impossible.
“Our trade is a funky trade and the times right now, even for normal trades, are tough. I don’t know where the people have gone, but there’s nobody to employ,” he said, adding it would have been hard on his son Dennis, who had been working with them for 15 years, to try and keep the store running by himself.
With that in mind, and seeing the state of downtown, Phillion said he and his wife Julie, who did all the administration work, decided to shut it down.
“We decided the writing was on the wall and downtown’s going to have a change in its appearance and we’ve had it now, you know, I’ve been at this since I was 20. It’s the right time.”
It will mean more time for Phillion to enjoy his boat, tennis and golf.
“Quite frankly I wouldn’t want to play golf five days a week though,” he said.
He does worry about the state of downtown.
“It’s not the pretty site it used to be. Fort Street used to be a dynamic commerce place and I, I think it needs a rebirth,” he said hoping some of the new development downtown may help. “I’ve been very lucky that there’s so few of us shoe repair shops around that our clients are willing to walk the gauntlet.
“Because it’s not my good looks that have brought them in, I’ll tell you that.”
When asked if there’s an event that stands out in his career, beyond the longevity, Phillion was quick to recall being paid in crabs to make shoes for a clown about 20 years ago.
“A fellow came in and he was a Jack of all trades and a master of none, and being a clown was one of his jobs, and he asked us to make him some shoes,” he said. There was no money, but a cache of crabs and some old shoehorns he got from a friend.
aduffy@timescolonist.com
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