Lebanon economic crisis means more work for craftsmen

Among meandering alleyways in the historic market of Lebanon's southern city of Sidon, cobblers and menders are doing brisk business, as an economic crisis revives demand for once-fading trades.

At Ahmed al-Bizri's shoe repair store, nestled among old stone arches and a crowded warren of shops and stalls, workers are busy adjusting a woman's sandals and replacing the worn-out sole of a man's shoe.

"Repairs are in high demand," said Bizri, 48, who learned the trade from his father.

People from all walks of life "come to us to repair their shoes: rich, poor, average workers, public servants, soldiers," he added.

Since late 2019, Lebanon has been in a state of economic collapse that the World Bank says is one of the worst in modern times.

The Lebanese pound has lost around 98 percent of its value against the US dollar, and most of the population has been plunged into poverty.

Bizri said his work "has increased 60 percent" since the crisis began, adding that people now prefer to spend up to one million Lebanese pounds (around $11 on parallel markets) to fix old shoes rather than buy new ones.

"Even people who had shoes hidden away for 20 years are bringing them out for repair," he said with a smile, boots hanging from rusty hooks and coloured laces on the walls around him.

In a shop nearby in central Sidon, fellow cobbler Walid al-Suri, 58, works with an old manual sewing machine that clicks and clacks as he pumps the pedal with his foot.

He stitches up a hole in the side of a shoe and trims the thread, covering it with black polish to camouflage the repair.

"It's true that our work has increased," he said from his workshop, a tiny space with faded green walls filled with shoes of all kinds.

But "there are no profits because the price of all the materials has gone up, from glue to needles, thread and nails," he said.

In Lebanon, a country dependent on imports, inflation has soared.

In 2022, inflation averaged 171 per cent, according to the World Bank -- one of the highest rates worldwide.

"We pay for everything in dollars, not in Lebanese pounds," said Suri, who repairs around 20 shoes a day.

For that, he said he earns about $11, hardly enough to cover the basic needs of his family of three.

Some people have asked him to repair shoes that were verging on unfixable because they had no money for new ones, he said.

Elsewhere in the coastal city, Mustafa al-Qadi, 67, is mending duvets under the soft light of a window during one of Lebanon's long power cuts.

The bankrupt state provides just a handful of hours of electricity a day.

Qadi uses thick thread and deftly sews stitches into a duvet spread out on the floor, other quilts folded and rolled up around him.

"Most people patch things up" even if they are made cheaply, said Qadi, who is also an upholsterer.