This cobbler from Cobalt, Ont., is succeeding at a lost trade

Walking through the northern Ontario town of Cobalt can be like a trip back in time.

"The shops that you see in town are very unique," said Matthew Johnson, a cobbler who grew up in southern Ontario, but set up shop in Cobalt, which was once known for its silver and cobalt mines, which gave it its name.

"We have a book publisher, we have obviously the boot maker, shoemaker, we have a very unique tea room that just opened up."

Johnson's shop, called Poor Boy Soles Bespoke Shoe Co., focuses on made-to-measure footwear made of high quality materials. A lot of his clients have either very large, or very small feet that make it difficult for them to find shoes in their size.

"We're building a much better product than something that's mass produced," he said.

"We're building it to measure, or to spec. The clients can pick and choose the materials that we use as long as it coincides with the design or the structure of the footwear that they'd like."

That commitment to help hard-to-fit clientele has even brought him international business, where a client sends him their feet measurements and he can have their footwear delivered to them.

For clients like Geneviève Jennings, that's been a game changer. She was always unable to find shoes in her size in stores.

"It's really the first time I've had boots that fit me well," she told Radio-Canada. "I never imagined not having sore feet at the end of the day."

The shop is located in a former bank, built at the height of the silver boom in 1905. 

To build and repair footwear, Johnson uses a mix of modern equipment, and older tools that date as far back as 1797.

He learned the craft when he was living with a Mennonite cobbler in southern Ontario in 2003.

"I ended up working with him, learning trade in the first few months that I was there," Johnson said.

"And then every year thereafter I went back for a few weeks, a few weeks out of the year to polish and hone the trade, so to speak."