Unemployed due to Covid, desperate requests of Sardinian cobbler: “Do you have shoes to give us?”

Covid, crisis, unemployment, or a much lighter wallet. Even shoes become a luxury. This is what happened and is still happening in Sardinia. In shoemakers there are young, but also fifty-year-olds, who knock and ask only one question: “Do you have a pair of shoes to give me?”. They, the island cobbler, who narrates this, are on the sidelines of the press conference to make a donation of 450 pairs of shoes to Caritas, which will then give them to those in need. Money to buy new shoes? There is none, but there is also a shortage of euros for repair or repair. Marco Miro, a 33-year-old shoemaker from Senorbu, makes the shoes that once belonged to his father. He has moved from his Orroli to Senorbì, and the business is going well: “Even in the past two years, thanks to the crisis, there has been no shortage of customers.” What about free shoe orders? “It happened so often, about 40 and 50 years of age came to ask me if I had shoes to give. I happened to be able to give them to them, and they thanked me, explaining that they needed them because they couldn’t buy them new.”

The same situation happened several times in shoemaker Mirco Padroni, a 27-year-old cobbler from Olbia: “Unfortunately not everyone can even repair their shoes, and they also asked me if I had shoes as a gift, perhaps even by customers. Orders cannot be measured. Not everyone was willing to open up and talk about their difficulties.” “Average age? It can’t be counted, the epidemic has not looked anyone in the face. Work? Well, in 2022 you can still live as a shoemaker. Although there are difficulties and hard times as in all jobs.”