The Cobbler

These gaps can come in all shapes and sizes, but in rapidly growing markets and communities such as Dubai, their existence is shrinking as the holes are filled by those with a keen eye.

When Sibylle Arnold-Shish and her husband moved to Dubai from Europe they saw a gap and acted upon it. Now, The Cobbler is a by-word for luxury standards of shoe repair and retail, with shops in the Dubai International Finance Centre (DIFC) and Level Shoe District of Dubai Mall, and a reputation for providing a quality of service not previously seen in the region’s shoe industry.

But as with most businesses, The Cobbler’s path the success was not a straightforward one. And certainly not an obvious one, being established by a marketing expert and a banker.

But entrepreneurship and business acumen don’t recognise job titles, especially when an opportunity presents itself, as Arnold-Shish explains.

“We came to Dubai four and a half years ago. My husband and I saw a gap in the market for shoe shining. We’re French but lived in London, and he was very disappointed not to find this kind of service our here, so we decided to launch the Shoe Shine Company at business centres and airports.

“Eventually customers asked about shoe repair as well, and so we looked for a place to repair shoes but couldn’t find any places, so we decided to launch a concept that would not only be shoe repair, but the whole ‘gentlemen’s club’ experience.

“Good quality shoes, shoe repair and prices were missing here. The whole environment of shoes and accessories for gentlemen was missing, so we acted upon it, and this is how The Cobbler was born.”

Opening in the DIFC in November 2011, the husband and wife team soon had the opportunity to open a second shop at Dubai Mall. From the outside, their story seemed extremely easy, but according to Arnold Shish, this was not the case.

“In terms of starting up I would say that it was not very easy because we didn’t have the opportunity to have services help us.

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“We didn’t have opportunity to have a company help us do things like work out the licensing process, which was quite difficult – we had to find everything out ourselves. We had to do a lot of other things at the same time – finding location, dealing with fit out, finding the right people, finding our first stock, and so on. And I was pregnant at the time, so it was even harder!

“But when we opened our first shop we were lucky enough to find that people understood the added value a service like a cobbler gives a building like the DIFC. It’s actually been quite smooth in that respect – finding people who will support us and come to us. We’ve got a lot of people interested. I think it’s something new for a lot of people, especially in Dubai.

“We had been thinking about the concept for a long time, having been key customers of these types of services before. My husband is a banker in the DIFC, so we knew what we had to do to appeal to people here.”

And appealing it is. Inspired by the Parisian arcades, as well as Savile Row in London and other high-end boutiques, The Cobbler’s gentlemen’s club aspirations are fully realised, with heavy velvet curtains, pool tables, polo accoutrements and beautiful antique Chesterfield furniture.

The core of The Cobbler, however, is ensuring that this sense of luxury is not simply superficial.

Fully aware of how important the actual service was to customers, Arnold-Shish went to great lengths to make sure that the business had both style and substance.

“Being a non-expert myself it was mandatory for me to make sure the people working here are specialists,” she explains.

“We were aware of an organisation called Compagnons du Devoir in France, which teaches all kinds of manual skills.”

The Compagnons du Devoir is a professional apprenticeship, training craftsmen to the highest standards of knowledge, technical ability and service. Dating back to the Middle Ages, the group aims to instill not only expertise, but also a passion for the artisan’s favoured skill, and a desire to see it passed on to future generations.

Trades such as masonry, carpentry, joining, upholstering, baking, roofing, and others are taught to the highest standard, something which Arnold-Shish saw as vital to The Cobbler’s DNA.

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“This is a big part of the success of the shop,” she says. “People recognise that they have experts in front of them, and it makes a big difference. A lot of services in Dubai mean that you can call somebody to bring something to your door, but the difference is the standard of quality, and it’s appreciated when somebody knows what they are talking about, and you can trust them.

“We found the right person from Compagnons du Devoir who was ready for a new experience in Dubai. Since then we’ve expanded and hired two new people. Part of the values of the Compagnon is to train new people and to learn continuously. We want to follow this rule so we hire people from Dubai and train them to the standards of the Compagnons.

“This savoir faire is really becoming scarce. New generations are used to jobs where you can learn quickly and get money quickly. The older skills require more patience and passion, and take more time to learn, so the experts are scarce but we want to be part of the people who keep it going and maybe even bring it back.

“You can tell by the hands of the people that they know what they are doing. When you spend money on something, you want to make sure you can trust people to do their job well. With these people you can definitely trust them.”

The notion of luxury and high standards is not alien to Dubai or the rest of the UAE. There is an ever-increasing group of consumers willing to pay more for the extra level of quality, and with the number of high net worth individuals with a fortune of AED110m ($30m) or more set to rise by 53 percent in the next ten years, according to Knight Frank’s Wealth Report 2013, there are certainly enough people who can afford to go that extra mile.

But price doesn’t always equate to quality, something that Arnonld-Shish believes is becoming more apparent to buyers who are on the look-out for something special.

“The market in Dubai has become more mature than before,” she says. “We have famous franchises here – luxury franchises who people will go to because they know them, but more and more we feel there’s a need and a wish from the customers for something more unique, something a bit more real.

“The market is led by the customers themselves – they own a lot of luxury items, but they are looking for something now with a difference. This is not necessarily the brand or the product itself, but how it was made. The material, the amount of time spent. This is why bespoke is growing. It’s well known in the tailoring world, but it’s really starting to happen in other fields – shoes and other things.

“This is the next step of luxury. It’s like travelling. Once you’ve been to a beautiful place, the next thing is about the experience while you’re there.”

Taking its lead from this consumer desire, The Cobbler not only offers shoe repair. Its range of ready-to-wear footwear, bespoke handmade shoes, accessories, and slippers have become an incredibly popular.

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So where does the company go from here?

“We’re a small company and don’t have a lot of people working for us, so each new launch has to be carefully studied and each location has to be carefully studied,” says Arnold-Shish.

“We will do no more than one new opening per year, but when we have a great opportunity we have to take it for sure. That said, we definitely think about things more than twice because we are our own investors.”

With a brand that is based upon tradition and skilled craftsmanship, she also emphasises the fact that The Cobbler is in the fortunate position of not having to follow the latest trend.

“We’re not a ‘fashionable’ brand. We are timeless, and the skills we’re talking about are timeless. There’s a gap in the market here for that. There are so many competitors for fashion who have been here for decades. I’m not a designer – it wouldn’t have been the right choice to go down that route.

“We have our own standards and we don’t need to change our attitude according to the fashion or in order to have the right customers. All of our experts are taking care of people’s precious shoes and offering advice on how to choose or take care of them. There are people from all over the region and world here in Dubai, but they are all looking for the same thing.”

Having made it as an entrepreneur, Arnold–Shish feels extremely positive about the landscape for other start-up business in the UAE.

“Dubai is a magical place where things like this can still happen,” she says. “There are lots of expats here and we all remember what we had back home and can’t find here. If we believe we have come up with an idea to please not only ourselves, but the community in general, then there’s really something to be done in Dubai.

“There are other gaps to be filled. A lot of things are happening here.

“I’ve very pleased we saw the gap for this and brought it here first. I’m please that we’re part of Dubai’s growth.”