Local History: Generations of Shoe Repair, Sales

The True Fit shoe store postcard seen here is in the collection of the Millburn-Short Hills Historical Societyand was recently brought to the current owner of the Tru-Fit shoe repair store at 95 Main St. for additional information about the card.

Jerry Occhiuzzi is the second generation owner of the Millburn shoe store business. He shared these reminiscences about his father's business:

Jerry’s father, Nunzio Occhiuzzi, came to the United States from Italy, through France first. He was in New York , then Paterson and finally Millburn by about 1950.

Nunzio started a shoe repair business on Millburn Avenue, across from 318 Millburn Ave. He moved to 318 Millburn Ave. before the final location at 95 Main St. around 1972. He learned his craft in this country. His store was named Victory Shoe Repair until about the early 1950s, after which he changed it to Tru-Fit when he decided to sell shoes.

Although his son Jerry took over the business in 1980, Nunzio ran it until 1989-90. Jerry had been shining shoes as a child to help out. The Boiles’ Millburn Feed Store is the oldest family-run business in Millburn, and Tru-Fit is the next oldest family-run business in town.

The building at 95 Main St. had been abandoned when Nunzio moved into it. Jerry remembered a candy store and an antiques shop there. Frank Reino told him the town’s ice house used to be behind the building.

In about 2001 Jerry renovated the store and exposed the tin ceiling, brick walls and oak and cedar floor, as seen in the photos here. The taffy pull behind his desk came from Koll’s store, formerly on Millburn Avenue. Mr. Baird was a butcher whose business used to be where Sawhorse Designs is now, and Jerry got a big butcher block table from there when it closed.