BUFFALO CENTER, Iowa — You’ve heard the stories from rural America about struggling stores on small-town main streets.
This is not one of those.
“This machine probably was built about 1930s,” Tim Weaver says as he stitches a new sole on a pair of well-worn cowboy boots.
That Tim is coaxing a Depression-era sewing machine toward its second century of service is not the feat that brought us seven miles south of the Minnesota border to Buffalo Center, Iowa — population 850.
The feat that brought us here is the feet that have brought Weaver’s Leather Store to a milestone.
“We’re coming up 100 years, next year,” Tim says.
It isn’t Weaver’s only significant number.
“We’re probably close to 13,000,” Julie Weaver, Tim’s wife, says as she passes through a door at the back of the store.
Stacked floor to rafters are 13,000 pairs of shoes.
“It goes and goes,” Julie says as she passes between stacks of shoes in the original Weaver’s store and a series of additions.
“We’re a little full,” Julie admits. “Tim had a salesman tell him one time you can never sell an empty shelf.”
Tim took the advice to heart, stocking Weaver’s shelves with roughly 15 pairs of shoes for every man, woman, and child in town.
That statistic, however, is a bit misleading, because Weaver’s knows no borders.
“We have shoes in every state,” Tim says.
Hundreds of colored pins on a map behind the cash register show the extent of Weaver's reach.
Nearby, scores of additional pins dot a map of the world.
Not especially impressive, one might think, in the age of online sales.
But consider this: “Never had a website,” Tim says. “Just word of mouth and people coming in.”
Weaver’s business model has strayed little from the one Tim’s father subscribed to when he took over the store 74 years ago.
Tim keeps a picture of his dad above his workstation.
He keeps another reminder of his father even closer.
“That’s me,” laughs Tim’s 94-year-old dad, seated at a sewing machine a few feet from his son.
Three decades past the typical age of retirement, LeRoy Weaver can’t stay away.
“Monday through Saturday, he comes to work with me every day yet,” Tim says as his dad sews replacement leather pieces into worn work boots.
LeRoy blames “a little stubbornness” for his decision to continue working.
He was 19 when his father, Ted Weaver, died of cancer, leaving LeRoy to take over the store his dad founded in 1925.
Except for the two years he served in the Korean War, LeRoy has been a fixture here.
If you’re keeping tabs, that’s three generations of Weavers who’ve kept the store afloat.
But that’s not the end of it.
“I’m the fourth generation and I’m Colin Weaver,” says the young man busily sewing a zipper into a winter jacket.
Colin, 26, and his 29-year-old brother Tanner intend, someday, to take over the store themselves.
“This is my thing,” Tanner says as he cuts leather pieces for a pliers holder. “Helping people, that’s what I like to do.”
Colin says he was weighing his options in college before realizing, “I wouldn’t be able to find anything I’m passionate about like this.”
It’s a passion that keeps Colin’s grandma, Carolyn Skogen, busy, too.
“I rip out zippers,” she says. “There isn’t people who do this anymore, they throw things. We live in a throwaway country. Not here," Carolyn continues. "You save the unsavable.”
The same could be said for Weaver’s Leather, the kind of small-town store that shouldn’t have survived — yet thrives.
"It is very unique," Tim agrees.
No matter how busy, every day three generations of Weavers walk up their rural main street to the grocery store coffee shop, under the guise of drinking coffee and talking shop.
Yet, the Weavers all know it’s something deeper when the business conversation includes three generations.
“Not too many people can say that. It’s an honor,” Tim says, his voice tinged with emotion. “That’s what we’re here for, keep the generations going.”
In small towns across America, businesses come and, too often, go with the seasons.
So, how appropriate that the strong fabric of Buffalo Center depends on Weavers.
Editor's Note: Though Weaver's Leather Store has yet to create a business website, it does have a Facebook page you can access by clicking here.
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