Owner John Filion is retiring at age 69; one factor: he failed to find skilled craftsmen to take over the store
The weather may be right and the sign may be on the wall, but John Filion, owner of the Stevenson Shoe Clinic in downtown Victoria, will be the first to tell you that it doesn’t make it easier to turn off the lights one last time.
When Filion locks the door to the 97-year-old business this afternoon, it will mark the last nail in the sole of the Fort Street gadget.
“I haven’t slept very well in the last month,” he said, noting that the idea of closing down and retiring is bitterly sweet.
For the 69-year-old Filion, this is the end of his working days after nearly 50 years of shoe repair, but this is also the end of the family business after nearly a century.
The company was established at 616 Fort St. in 1925 by Alec Stevenson, the uncle of Filion’s father. Filion’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 Filion bought it from his father in 1984, moved for the last time and settled on 714 Fort. St. in 1987
There is no reason for the decision to close and retire, but Filion said things have changed through the pandemic.
The offices in the center have been largely empty for most of the last two years and have yet to return to their full capacity, or perhaps never, which has affected people who come to repair their shoes or take supplies. .
It also means a change in what people wear to work, as they tend not to require dress shoes to sign their homes.
“But the biggest difficulty is the staff,” he said.
Filion said his staff is the “heart and only” of the store, and the craftsmen he works with – Russ Hunt and Devi Banger – are now retired.
“The staff is ready to work, no doubt about it,” he said, noting that the two men have been working there since the 1970s. “One of them stayed another month because I needed more time.”
Filion said finding qualified craftsmen to replace them was almost impossible.
“Our trade is a funky trade and the times right now, even for normal deals, are difficult. I don’t know where the people went, but there is no one to hire, “he said, adding that it would be difficult for his son Denis, who has been working with them for 15 years, to try to keep the store running.
With that in mind, and seeing the state of the center, Filion said he and his wife, Julie, who did all the administrative work, decided to close it.
“We decided that the inscription is on the wall and the center of the city will have a change in its appearance and now we have it, you know, I’ve been doing this since I was 20 years old. This is the right time. “
This will mean more time for Filion to enjoy his boat, tennis and golf.
“Honestly, though, I wouldn’t want to play golf five days a week,” he said.
He worries about the condition of the center.
“This is not the beautiful site it used to be. Fort Street was a dynamic trading place and I think it needs to be reborn, “he said, hoping that some of the new development at the center could help. “I was very lucky that there are so few of us shoe repair shops around that our customers are ready to go out on the road.
“Since my bad looks didn’t bring them, I’ll tell you that.”
When asked if there was an event that stood out in his career besides longevity, Filion quickly remembered that about 20 years ago he was paid with crabs to make clown shoes.
“A man came in and he was a master of all crafts and a master of nothing, and being a clown was one of his tasks and he asked us to make him shoes,” he said. There was no money, but there was a crab cache and a few old shoe horns he had received from a friend.
aduffy@timescolonist.com
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