www.qns.com i LIC COURIER i FEBRuary 2017 23
Leather Spa, located at 22-19 41st
Ave., is a 10,000-square-foot repair
facility where employees polish,
shrink, enlarge, dye and repair leather
products from handbags to shoes to
chairs. It’s been in the neighborhood
for eight years.
David Mesquita, who runs the company,
learned the trade from his father,
Carlos, who owned 13 shoe
repair shops in France, and the majority
of his customers were women;
they were the ones who would bring
in their own shoes and bags, as well
as their husbands’ items, for repair.
After visiting the United States,
Carlos realized that American shoe
repair stores catered more to men,
and he saw the opportunity to create
more of a woman-friendly business.
In 1983, Carlos opened his first location
in America, working out of a
basement and first-floor apartment
in Manhattan.
Mesquita grew up in the family business,
working at his father’s shops
during the weekends. After finishing
college he worked at other shoe
companies but decided working in
the family business is what made
him the happiest.
“You just fall into it,” he said. “When
you’re a little kid there was really no
allowance or anything like that. If
you wanted something you had to
work for it.”
Throughout the years, Leather Spa
has created a computer system to
track customers’ orders and more;
this system is now used by other
cobblers across the country. Leather
Spa even has its own line of leather
care products like a water and stain
protector, leather shampoo and conditioner,
a shine brush, insoles, laces
and boot shapers.
Business
This is one of five Leather Spa
outposts in Manhatan
