Shoemaker
What the work is
Makes and repairs boots or shoes.
Would you enjoy the work?
These are the main tasks in the official description. Mark how each one sounds to you.
- Measures customers' feet for shoe size
- Designs patterns and prototypes of shoes
- Cuts and shapes shoe components to desired specifications
- Assembles shoes using adhesives, rivets or stitching
- Repairs shoes by replacing components
- Provides shoe care advice to customers
Try it
A simulation and a case study from this kind of work, set in a small tailoring and alterations studio with a sewing room out the back. They are fictional.
The kind of days you could have
Good days
- A bride sees herself in the finished dress and the whole room goes quiet
- A pair of boots you resoled come back on the feet of someone who loves them
- Cutting a pattern so cleanly that every piece lines up on the first try
Hard days
- A rush job before a wedding, with a customer who keeps changing their mind
- A flaw in the fabric appears only after you have cut into the last length
- Hours bent over a machine with sore shoulders and a deadline that will not move
Written by Career Calling as a general guide. Real roles vary by employer and place.
Work a mission
Step into a simulated workplace in this field, with a brief from your manager.
Description and tasks: Australian Bureau of Statistics, Occupation Standard Classification for Australia, 2024, Version 1.0 (opens another site), occupation 399437, used under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. The skill guide above is our plain English summary.