Devaul Quick holds up two shoes for sale at Trap Cleaners.
Brandon Hodge | The Laurinburg Exchange
A list of prices for shoe cleaning and restoration at Trap Cleaners.
Brandon Hodge | The Laurinburg Exchange
LAURINBURG — When Devaul Quick lived in Manhattan, N.Y, he worked on a boat on Houston Street. While at work one day, he met a man from Jerusalem who was highly invested in shoes.
His career path changed from then on.
Quick became intrigued in shoes and wanted to learn how to clean them.
“On my days off, I used to go over to his house,” Quick said. “Once I learned the system (of cleaning them) and everything, I just kept with it.”
Quick enjoyed shoe-cleaning, but began working harder after his son passed away.
“Once he passed, I jumped in it full throttle,” Quick said.
After moving to Laurinburg, Quick opened up his shoe shop “Trap Cleaners” during the summer of 2022 and has been gaining more business each month.
Quick explained what he does at his shop on a day-to-day basis.
“(When) most people bring shoes in, they’re real old, so I restore shoes,” Quick said. “I take something that’s old and make it look brand-new. I do basic customs (and) I re-ice the soles back.”
To restore the shoes, Quick has a process to get them in better condition.
“First thing I do, I clean the bottom of the sole and make sure the rocks and everything (are gone). (Then), I get acetone (and) wipe the bottom of the soles with acetone. (Then), I get a brush and make sure all the dust is off. And, after that, I just go through real good and clean the insides, the soles, the bottom of the soles; basically everything in the shoe. Then, I take it and I ice the soles out.”
“Icing the soles means I get a solution that I made, take the solution, and add it to the bottom of the soles and I put it in the ‘ice box’ I made. The ‘ice box’ is a box that deoxidizes the shoe. So, say you’ve got a white surface of the shoe and it’s real yellow and has been sitting for a long time, and has age to it, you add the (solution) to it and it deoxidizes it.”
Quick also said that the amount of time it takes to re-ice the shoes varies on the type of shoe.
“An Air Force One might take me two hours, a Jordan 11 might take me a week sometimes to re-ice the soles out,” he said.
Trap Cleaners can be located at 146 S. Main St. in Laurinburg.