Beloved Durham shoeshine man has a new chair, thanks to community friends

Pierce McKoy, a Durham shoeshine man, loves when a customer brings in a pair of worn-down shoes they just can’t bear to part with.

“You think there’s no hope for it,” the 66-year-old McKoy said, adding that’s exactly the kind of shoe he built his reputation on.

Now, after years of caring for the shoes of downtown Durham, the local community has helped mend a part of McKoy’s own business.

A fundraising effort led by Durham resident Jesse Huddleston raised roughly $2,500 to help McKoy pay to refurbish his chair, where customers sit as McKoy shines their shoes.

It took only a few hours to meet their initial goal, Huddleston said.

McKoy emphasized the importance of having a quality chair in his work.

“The chair represents a moment that you may need to wind down, to think something out, or to find out about something,” he said. “The importance of the chair, it follows suit with the quality of the work from the chair.”

But he added that the chair had suffered from years of use.

“After hundreds and hundreds of people sit in it, it’ll start to wear down,” he said.

McKoy received the new chair on Nov. 11, after a carpenter had redone it in wood and fitted it with a new seat.

”They love it,” he said of his customers. “They’re saying it feels good, looks good. They’re really, really enthusiastic about it.”

‘It’s priceless.’

The Durham native and renowned local shoeshine man has moved around over the years, leaving the Bull City for a time before returning roughly five years ago.

McKoy said it’s the people and the community who make him love his work.

“I love doing it,” he said. “And the smile on the people’s faces, oh man, it’s priceless.”

He estimates about eight out of every 10 customers becomes his friend.

Still, the community response shocked him.

“I didn’t know so many people cared. I really didn’t,” McKoy said. “I feel compelled to make sure that they see that the money was well spent.”

He said he’s looking to invest leftover funds into a Bluetooth speaker to play smooth jazz, and to stock additional items for shoe repair, like shoe strings, tacks and rubber pieces for heels.

“Things of that nature,” he said. “Things I haven’t been able to do, that I should be able to render.”

McKoy added he’d like to thank each person who contributed individually.

“I would love if they can come by the chair so I can do a personal meet and greet with them,” he said. “Some of them I’m sure I know, but if they can make their way to the chair, they got a freebie coming.”

McKoy said he’d love to offer free shoe shines to those who donated during the Durham Holiday Parade on Dec. 18.

‘People who know a shine, get a shine.’

Huddleston said he’s known McKoy for about five years.

“He’s a business man. He’s always going after customers and engaging people respectfully and intentionally,” Huddleston said. “When I would walk by, he would always ask me if I wanted to get my shoes shined. Eventually, I let him.”

“He did a great job and so I became a loyal customer,” he said.

“One of my slogans is ‘People who know a shine, get a shine,’” McKoy said.

It’s important to support businesses like McKoy’s, which hold part of the legacy of Durham, Huddleston said.

“He always tells stories of people who have sat in his chair, and different memories he has of being a kid and growing up in Durham. He is a product of that,” Huddleston said. “I think it’s really, really important to not just preserve our history and culture, but to perpetuate it in humanizing ways.”

“I’m not saying that I can change the realities or outcomes of all small business owners, or all Black people, or all the stories of all our elders, I can’t do that,” he added. “But I can at least do what I can, and hopefully that is a faithful use of what I have to offer.”

Even though he’s lived and worked elsewhere, McKoy said, “Durham is definitely home.”

“I came out of the Hayti community,” he said. “Back then, there were two downtowns, the Black downtown and the downtown where it is now.”

“People took pride in the way that they dressed,” he added. “So it’s not too far off from that now, just with the new trend of shoes, sneakers and things of that nature.”

“And I do sneakers,” McKoy said. “I do all shoes.”

This story was originally published December 17, 2021 at 5:30 AM.