With a quarter of a century behind him, Calzados Melchor is the only cobbler shoemaker left in Dénia. The workshop, located on Paseo del Saladar, is full of yellow shoe lasts hanging on the walls, machines with which they work for 20 years and others much newer, and above all, shoes. Hundreds of shoes of all kinds: with heels, without heels, sports shoes, moccasins, boots, sandals...
Thousands and thousands of pairs have passed through the hands of Salvador Crespo and Pepe Peiró since they opened the business in the mid-eighties.
When they decided to undertake this new project, Salvador and Pepe, who was barely 20 years old at the time, traveled to Madrid to learn this profession.
There they acquired the necessary machinery to launch the company. Thus, in October 1985 they settled in a small store next to the old shoe store on Calle Diana, Melchor, and began repairing shoes. That was 25 years ago.
In its beginnings, the shoe store, popularly known as Melchoret, only repaired shoes.
Little by little the business grew and they expanded the store due to the acquisition of new machines and activities, such as duplicating keys and remotes, repairing bags and selling all kinds of shoe care products. A few years later, they moved to the establishment in which they are currently located.
Over the years, the founders of the workshop dedicated themselves not only to repairing damaged shoes, but also to lining the shoes of the falleras. It was carrying out this activity when they saw a need in Dénia. In this way they moved again to another city, Elda, and learned everything necessary to make and manufacture this very special footwear themselves.
With more than a hundred repairs a day, this business has not suffered the effects of the crisis. Melchor has customers from all over Spain who have learned about this company through word of mouth. And even people from different countries who have not managed to fix their shoes in their city. "There are foreigners who come in summer with huge bags, with more than 50 shoes for us to repair," Pepe pointed out.
Even "on horseback" have arrived at the shoe store, when a traveler who was traveling through Spain on horseback entered the premises to have his pants fixed. Something unusual in this establishment, since as the saying goes "shoemaker to your shoes", and Melchor is a specialist in footwear, exclusively.
During these 25 years, they have repaired and lined all kinds of shoes, and many of them the most curious. From shoes of more than 800 euros, to the traditional wooden clogs, called "klompen", through little dog shoes.
They've even fixed and lined drag queen boots "with pistachio and orange hearts," said one of the employees. In fact, they have asked them for the impossible, since according to Peiró, a lady narrated that she bought a pair of shoes for her right foot, both of them, and demanded that one of them be transformed into the left one. It could not be this time around.
In addition, Melchor has innovated in a business as traditional as this, and they have thus become not only the only cobbler in Dénia, but also the only one to manufacture orthopedic lifts for any type of footwear, not only in the special one. They are also dedicated to putting the special soles to play bowling properly.
