About

From humble beginnings

Established in 2009 in Boynton Beach by husband and wife team (Josh from Canada & Fatima from Brazil). Fatima was the one with the talent (seamstress). Josh handled the rest…

From the get-go, it was a struggle. A bad economy, a new city, a brand new and empty shopping center, and no money to spare… But with perseverance, the word got around that this was a good place to go and discover.

In 2014, Fatima passed away from cancer, but Josh kept the project going as he knew it was built on solid grounds and worth saving.

Our strong reputation is no longer limited to its original local area. We now have regular customers willing to travel from all over South Florida for our services.

Meet the Staff...

Josh

Co-founder and proud owner of Hem Over Heels since 2009. He built his business on honesty and a constant desire to provide the best service and advice for his customers. He like things done right!

Born and raised in Montreal (Canada), Josh came to the US in 1999. He started to work in Boca Raton where he learned the rudiments of his trade.

However, in 2009, he and his wife Fatima decided to open their own establishment to become the masters of their own destiny (Utopia). That is when Hem Over Heels came to life. Fatima was the master seamstress and Josh was handling everything else.

Eventually, the business grew enough to bring in new talent to The Team. Every employee was picked for their superior quality in order to match the owner's philosophy. Because of that, the store was able to forge itself a strong reputation which helped to bring in more customers.

Twist Of Fate

Unfortunately, Fatima lost a long battle with liver cancer. Consequently, it was a very difficult time for Josh and the business. But after the setback, Josh redirect his focus on the business and slowly climbed back to the top.

As a matter of fact, Hem Over Heels celebrated its 10th year anniversary in March 2019. The business is now ranked top in searches and recommendations for all categories of services it offers.

Word Of Mouth

Furthermore, the territory that it now dominates far exceeds its local Boynton Beach, Delray Beach and Lantana direct area. The reviews and reputation for the store are so strong that it is not rare to see new customers coming from as far as Miami and Port-St-Lucie.

As a matter of fact, many Snowbirds away for the summer hold off on any repairs during the summer time. They bring everything back over here to have them repaired by the people they trust at Hem Over Heels.

What He Is To The Team

Ultimately, he takes the responsibility for everything that goes in his business. Fortunately he is very picky when it comes to the workers he hires to be part of his team. Thus, he will not accept people looking to take shortcuts and produce poor quality work.

His Philosophy

Actually, his business was built with honesty as its primary quality. And it is clearly expressed in many of the reviews his customers write about the service they received.

It is also visible in the way he serves his customers. For example, it is not rare to see him thoroughly examining a pair of shoes brought in for repairs. But at the end of his assessment, he points out to the customer, all other visible deterioration. This new information may make you reconsider your decision to repair a pair of shoes.

Josh knows what it is to be on the other side of that counter. So, there is no way he would allow for anybody to take advantage of a potential customer in order to make a quick buck. This would simply be dishonest and disrespectful.

The Skills He Brings

As the head of his enterprise, Josh should be able to handle just about any task that needs to be done in his establishment. Therefore, he is able to help you with everything pertaining to the shoe repair, the embroidery work and the sharpening department. It sometimes happens that he might be called to do some simple alteration fittings. But, when it is a bit more complicated, he prefers leaving it in the hands of the experts.

Simply put, he can do a little bit of everything except tailoring itself. Because the store offers many services, it is not uncommon to hear the old adage: "Jack Of All Trades Master Of None". But he finds this a little offensive to be totally honest. Josh is not the only person working at Hem Over Heels. In fact, Josh hires only but Masters of their own trade to work with him.

Therefore, it is wrong to state that this proverb applies to his store. He'd rather hear you say that Hem Over Heels is the place to find only Masters Of Their Own Trade. Each department has an expert in his or her field...

The Message

In the event that you would be unhappy with any of the work produced at Hem Over Heels, please come back and let us know what isn't right. Give us a chance to fix the problem. Because it is imperative that you don’t just disappear and leave us to wonder why we never saw you again.

There is no better way for us to keep track of the mistakes and prevent them from happening again. More importantly, we learn more from our mistakes than from our successes. Every return we get is an opportunity to learn and to prevent it from happening again.

The Guarantee

The team members Josh has assembled to work at Hem Over Heels are among the best in the trade. They usually get it right the first time. But none of the services offered in the store are considered to be exact science. Let's not forget that we are all subject to bad days now and then. We need to leave the door open for honest (or human) mistakes to arise at some point.

So when those occasions manifest themselves, we own our work and stand by our word. We will do everything possible to correct the situation. Customer's satisfaction is always priority number one and it is placed above everything else.

Cida

Cida (pronounced Sea-dah) was the first employee hired back in 2009. Over the years, she worked hard to maintain the high standards of quality we expect from all of our employees.

Lena

Lena came to work with us in December 2018. Since then, she's been valiantly holding the fort up and strong. We should all be blessed to go to work alongside such dedicated soldiers.

Alex

An old time tailor that does things his own way. But you need to trust him. He is a master of his trade. Alex worked with us before and he made himself available to us again as we are getting so much busier all the time...

Joe

A shoemaker's shoemaker... Josh worked with Joe since 1999. When Hem Over Heels was created, it was with the hope that Joe would join us and be part of the dream team. We're thrilled he did!

Find out more about Joe...

A Durable Partnership

Josh and Joe have been working together for more than twenty five years now. They met each other when Josh started to work in Boca Raton in 1999. Working well together for close to 6 years, life took them on different paths. But they always kept in touch.

So when Joe became available in 2017, Josh did not hesitate, not even for one second, and invited him to join "The Team" as the Master shoemaker at Hem Over Heels. Joe liked the idea and progressively integrated the team until he became a full time staff member in early 2018.

The Wow Factor!

Our Master brings in more than 40 years experience as a superior skilled shoemaker. He is not a butcher nor is he a pretender like so many others in the trade. Customers are finding out that he truly has exceptional skills that sets him clearly above the rest.

When clients pick up their order, the word "Wow!" is most often used. People are truly impressed by Joe's craftsmanship. He is attentive to the very small details that will make a world of difference. While we all work, he often likes to venture out from the dungeon (the place where we keep him happy and for protection against any stress) to show us yet another awesome repair he just performed. Joe is not trying to show off. He is simply proud of the results on some difficult jobs. And he should be proud because we clearly see his magic happen regularly.

This web site is worked on everyday in order to showcase his work a little bit more. But we would truly need to dedicate a new web page for whatever he produces each and every day.

What Makes Him So Good

First, Joe was hanging around his uncle's shoe repair shop when he was a kid. He learned a lot by observing how shoes were fixed and how everything was done. Thankfully, his uncle was a good shoemaker, so Joe learned to do things the right way from the start.

Eventually, Joe dared to test his own skill with the machines in his uncle's shoppe and surprised everyone with the results he produced. At 15, our young friend started to fix shoes and he never stopped. But he perfected his skills. He just wasn't going to be happy doing just a fair job. Instead, he wanted to get better at it. So he studied and learned his trade, he practiced and perfected his technique until he was able to match or surpass the best shoemakers in the industry.

Even today, Joe likes to watch tutorial videos from other Masters like him in order to push his knowledge ever further. It is rare that he is stumped by any challenge presented to him. This is actually something he loves. To be asked to work on "out of the ordinary" jobs mixes things up a little. It only feeds into his desire to learn something new.

But Most Importantly...

We are thrilled to have him with us and we plan on keeping him until he finally decides to retire (Hopefully not before many many years from now).

Joe is not perfect (he's a Yankees and Giants fan). But besides that, we need to dig in a lot deeper to find anything wrong with him. Needless to say, Joe 's origins are deeply rooted in New York... Oh well! Need we say more... But we love him anyway! (Wink, Wink)

Oksana

Oksana joined us in early 2025. She started as a customer service and seamstress apprentice. At some point we discovered she had more hidden talents. Now she is our in-house leather refinish expert. She does an amazing job and able to do stuff we didn't even think possible before.

Holly

Holly is the one welcoming you in. She is in charge of helping you with all your requests. She is the newest member to join our club of elite workers. You can trust her. She is knowledgeable and very efficient. We gave her permission to kick out any unruly character... So, be nice!

Joe (#2)

Joe is the newest member to join the team. He is in charge of the Social Media/Promotion/App Builder/IT Pro we hired to take us to the next level. His company is Tempest Labs LLC and a link to his website will be available very soon...