Sole revivers Father and sons give old footwear new life

No shoes are ever too old or tattered for the operators of Beeva’s Footwear.

For decades the father and sons trio of Lloyd, Dujae and Rojard Beckford have been putting life into footwear that many would be ready to pack away in garbage containers.

“We never turn away a customer no matter how bad they look. If we say it can’t fix, then it can’t fix and not even another shoemaker can do it. We bring back life to any shoes. We love the challenge of getting a pair of shoes with holes and discolouration. We feel satisfied when we repair them and just see the shock on the customers face when they see the new look. We do handbags as well,” Dujae said.

Beeva’s Footwear got its name in the 1990s but the elder Beckford has been making and repairing shoes from the 1970s. He told THE STAR that as a youngster growing up in Trench Town, he learnt tailoring.

“But mi never go far still because the man that I used to work for was a Seventh-day Adventist and at the end of the week, I wouldn’t get the five shilling until close to midnight on Saturday. I then started with a man who build shoes, but at the time they wouldn’t allow me to go around the machine. I used to just lace and trim up. Afterwards mi leave dat and decide to venture on mi own but mi use to watch the shoemaker dem so I had an idea how to make shoes,” he said.

Beckford made his first pair of sandals in the 1970s for his then girlfriend. Before long, he was making and selling leather slippers in the vicinity of ‘Big Tree’ in downtown Kingston.

“People use to say dem look like farrin slippers and a bare genuine leather mi use right through. Mi get a shop up a Swallowfield and mi use to make slippers for a store name Georgie’s Girl and a next one name Shoes World. A few years later, dem mash up mi shop inna one politics war because man see man from the other side by the shop and mi just move the business come pon mi verandah here in Cooreville Gardens. A slippers mi make and sell and buy this house, in 1980,” he said.

According to Beckford, both his sons developed a passion for shoemaking at an early age.

“When Dujae was about three years old I realised he didn’t like to play with his toys. He would throw them out of his crib so I put the shoes hammer and some other stuff in the crib and he would just start to beat beat,” he said. “He wouldn’t leave me a inch and he would grab my brush when I am not looking and start rub. I gave him the sole and he would start rub them and him would rub them good. When Rojard was about 10 he started to do shoes tipping and repairing,” Beckford said.

Dujae recalled that in the 1990s, the three of them used to go to Ocho Rios and Portland to sell slippers.

“At that time it was $250 a pair. We would take bus go Portland from the Friday and come up back Saturday night. One of his friends name Al use to accomodate us,” Dujae said.

In 2013 when Dujae got introduced to Instagram, he decided to use the app as a marketing platform. Currently, Beeva’s Footwear has thousands of followers and the trio say business is booming.

“From that day we never go back out to sell. We just advertise our products and take orders and work from our shop in Cooreville Gardens. Right now we are looking to extend the space. Sometimes we would go to the country and come back with barely anything sell. I was saying that this didn’t make sense and our father was getting older so we didn’t want him to be hackling up himself. So we stop with the road ting and it pay off. We love this trade and we never stop do shoemaking or repairs. We really love it,” Dujae said.