There are a lot of ways to learn about who a person is.

You can ask them what books they read, listen to how they talk about other people,

or watch the way they treat waiters at a restaurant.

But all Jim McFarlane needs to do is take a glance at their shoes.

If you always wear the left one out first, well, you must drive your car a lot.

That's your pivot foot. That's the first one in and out of the car.

And so you spin on that foot.

Looking at somebody's shoes tells you a lot about them, you can tell if they keep a tidy house or not.

If their shoe comes in and it is beat up bad, I'm thinking of myself, I don't want to go to their house.

For McFarland, this knowledge comes from more than 40 years on the job as a professional cobbler.

He's the owner of McFarland's shoe repair in Lakeland, Florida.

We do a lot of Russell Mockison boots, which is a really nice high-end hunting boot.

We do a lot of Alan Edmonds, Alden's, Edward Green, vintage floor shime.

I did one for a Santa Claus.

That was a lot of fun.

We did a red sole with green stitching

and green and red shoelaces. In the modern world, it's often a surprise to encounter a

cobbler shop. These days, most shoes aren't built to last, or to be repaired. When you wear a

pair out, you throw it away and buy a new one.

But today's cobblers benefit from a supply and demand paradox. The industry is slowly dying out.

But for those who remain, business is booming. Did you ever see the movie 300? Remember all those

thousands of people that were against

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