When it comes to creative projects, Ryan Embry doesn’t really know how to say “no.”
In an industry built on tradition, Embry is a bit of a renegade. He is a third-generation cobbler, yes, but he is also an art school graduate, a former culinary student, a muscle car restorer, and a man who once spent a decade working in stables.
“It’s whatever strikes my fancy at that moment,” Embry says, gesturing around his shop, which is less a standard shoe repair store and more of a vibrant, creative sanctuary. “Which is unfortunate, because everything strikes my fancy.”
Located in the heart of Buckhead, Classic Shoe & Leather is a sensory experience. Customers visit the compact lobby three days each week to drop off shoes for repair and consult with Ryan about custom work. But the back of the house is alive with activity six days a week. Loud music plays, the smell of dyes and adhesives hangs in the air, and shelves are overflowing with rolls of leather in every color of the rainbow. There are bins of buckles, zippers, “Chicago screws,” and magnetic snaps. It is here that Embry and his crew—including his son, Jackson, and their “PR Department,” a friendly dog named Spike—tackle projects that most other shops turn away.
From Shoe Repair to “Everything” Repair
“I’m coming up on 40 years this coming summer,” Embry says. “37 years paying taxes doing this.”
He started out sticking to the family trade—mostly shoes—for the first 15 years. But the artist in him got bored. He spent time in Atlanta’s Little Five Points neighborhood, hanging out with “hippies” and learning to make bags, sandals, and more. He then moved into high-end fashion circles to learn elegant, skillful techniques.
Today, the business creates costumes for film and TV, performs pre-Civil War restorations for museums, and customizes high-fashion items.
“We do anything to do with leather,” he says. “We don’t limit ourselves in any way whatsoever. We like challenges. We like problem solving.”
The Celebrity and the Bizarre
That “say yes to anything” reputation has made Embry a go-to artisan for the entertainment industry. When film crews need a miracle by Tuesday, they call Ryan.
His portfolio is a testament to the variety. He has customized Birkenstocks with chrome hardware, turned tennis shoes into mules, and even crafted lifts for Nicolas Cage. “I did this for a football movie he’s doing,” Embry recalls. “He needed to be taller, so I made him an inch and a half taller.”
He points out a pair of roller skates he transformed into custom boots and a jacket from the 90s by fashion house BCBGMAXAZRIA that he is using as a template to build a new version from scratch in lambskin.
“I love doing the really creative stuff because it’s almost always a ‘one-off,'” he says. “I get to have fun with it, create it, pass it on, and move on to something else.”
Fast, Good, or Cheap: Pick Two
Embry is the first to admit that his shop operates on a specific philosophy.
“If you look at my reviews, all my bad reviews basically say I’m slow,” he laughs. “And 99% of the time… it was either I couldn’t get the materials to be able to do the job fast enough, or I did not like the way that it turned out, and I took it all apart and did it all over.”
He describes himself as a perfectionist by nature. In a disposable society where people are used to buying cheap and throwing away, Embry is selling longevity and quality.
“It’s more important to me to have the job be a quality job than an expedient job,” he explains. “At the end of the day, we have a tangible item that we can actually hold in our hand and go, ‘Hey, I did this.’ If I’m going to do that, I want to actually say that I’m proud of what I did.”
A Dying Art, Kept Alive
The trade is shrinking. Embry notes that before COVID, there were roughly 7,000 cobblers in the nation. Now, he estimates that number is closer to 3,400. In Georgia alone, the number of shops has dwindled from over 120 to just over 100.
Yet, Embry’s shop is thriving. He has clients across all 50 states and international customers from Germany to Japan who fly in, drop off suitcases of leather goods, and pick them up on their way back out.
Despite the 85-hour weeks (“I’m here six days a week, but we’re only open three so we can focus on the work”), the vibe in the shop remains light.
“We like a nice, inviting experience,” Embry says. “Here is a safe place. It’s just working and having fun and music and painting and gluing… all that other stress of life is taken away for a short period of time while you’re here and you get to play.”
For the customers bringing in their grandmother’s deer skin jacket or their favorite worn-out boots, that playfulness—and that perfectionism—is exactly what they’re looking for.
You can find Ryan and his crew at Classic Shoe and Leather, 3759 Roswell Rd NE, Atlanta, GA 30342.
