Haeng Sool Chong wasn’t sure what to expect when he left South Korea some 40 years ago to join his sister in Honolulu.
He had no skills to speak of, no familiarity with the ways of his new home. He bused tables at Anna Miller’s Restaurant and pined for the friends he left behind.
One afternoon, a little boy ran into his yard in search of an errant ball.
"He asked me if I was Korean, and I said, ‘Yes,’" Chong recalls. "He was Korean, too. Forty years ago, no more Koreans over here. Not like now. He said his dad was across the street drinking."
Chong crossed the street and struck up the first real friendship of his new life in America. The neighbor, Mr. Moon, was the manager of a shoe repair shop at Ala Moana Center.
"He said, ‘You follow me and I teach you,’" Chong said.
Chong worked at Moon’s side for the next 10 years, developing the skills that would allow him to eventually take over the business.
So estimable are Chong’s leather skills that well-heeled representatives from the local Gucci, Bali, Escada, Chanel, Polo, Tod’s and Louis Vuitton stores make routine drop-offs to Chong’s tiny Holiday Shoe & Luggage Repair shop on Pensacola Street.
Chong, 66, takes special pride in handling unusual requests, from belts and shoes for size 5XL clients to custom-designed seat belts for special-needs children.
Once, a distraught dry cleaner brought in a $50,000 mink coat that an employee had accidentally shrunk in one spot while using an iron.
Chong spent a long night turning over the problem in his head. The next day he gently stretched a small portion of the shrunken area and pinned it to a board. He repeated the process each day for a week until the coat was perfectly restored.
He has longtime clients who understand the value of holding on to the worn but reliable things in life. They’re the ones, he says with mock exasperation, who won’t let him retire.
"I have a doctor who comes in with his old shoes all stitched up in different places," he says. "I tell him it’s time to throw them out already, but he tells me, ‘Please, Mr. Chong, just one more time.’"
