The Hardest Working Man

The Hardest Working Man

Having a good shoe repairman in New York City is like having a good mechanic in LA. You just can’t negotiate life on the streets without one.

Lorenzo Powell first learned his trade working in his father’s shoe repair shop in Harlem in the late 70’s and 80’s. Back then, Harlem was acutely economically depressed. People wore their shoes until their feet touched the sidewalk—and they brought them right to Lorenzo’s family shop.