BELFAST — In the old days, cobblers made shoes for people, carefully measuring and fitting material around each foot before stitching the canvas and leather. Then, came shoe factories, many of them built next to the fast-flowing New England rivers. Shoes and boots were designed, sewn, sold and carted around the country. In those stores, salesmen tended to customers, measuring each foot and finding just the right shoe.

Today, we live in the day of mass retail, with shoes and boots made overseas, shipped to big box stores, stacked in jumbled rows — a mess of ill-fitting shoes into which people cram their toes, trying to find just the right pair. It’s often a crapshoot, and there a lot of cheap shoes littering Salvation Army and Goodwill donation boxes.

Unless you are lucky enough to light onto a true-blue shoe store, the kind that thrived for more than a century and through the 1980s in small towns and cities across America. The ones that when you walked in the door, storekeepers greeted you by name. They knew what grade you were in, what school you went to, who your siblings were.

You can do that still in Belfast, at what is said to be, “the oldest shoe store in America.”

That’s a lot of history right there, but Colburn’s is the real deal. On Main Street, the store dates back to the 1700s, when Belfast was first settled, when peddlers trade in goods from abroad. Bartering lumber for shoes and boots was one way people survived in Waldo County.

This year marks the 93rd that the store has been in the same family. It also marks the 43rd year that Brian Horne has owned it, having acquired it from his father in 1986. And, it marks the 183rd year that the store has been in existence altogether.

The Year of 3s, so it seems. And it has been a great one for business, as more shoppers understand the value of such a shoe store. After a decade of drifting online and making poor purchases that have to be repackaged and returned, customers are returning to the local shoe store. For Brian Horne and his son, Colby, this is no big surprise. They have seen many of those unsatisfactory purchases come through their store door as people ask for help in stretching oddly fitting shoes that were purchased online.

Shoes must fit right, but first, the key is to determine exactly how long and wide each foot is, and whether there are any anomalies, like weird bones or bunions. 

“A shoe should feel good right when you put it on,” said Colby. 

He has returned to Belfast from a stint working in South Carolina and Florida to help his father run the store. He intends to keep the business in the family for some time.

The shoe or boot should be snug in the heel with no pinching in the toe. And, the arch should align against the run of the shoe.

“Feet change all the time,” said Colby. “Muscles and bones change, as our bodies never stay the same.”

Hence, the imperative to stay with local stores and storekeepers who know you, as well as the stock.

Father and son Horne travel each year to Manchester, N.H., and Miami to shoe conventions, to shop themselves and see what is new, style and technology-wise. Why Miami? “Because it’s in March,” Colby smiles. 

Although Colburn’s caters to practical New England women and men, the Hornes have a sense of flair, and what appeals to customers. I bought a pair of Spring Steps, crafted in Florida by Latin designers, with a 2.5-inch heel and lots of “sensible” pizzazz — meaning I can comfortably tromp through the leaves without mishap, or hit city sidewalks, in equal comfort.

“When it comes to heels, they should feel good from the get-go,” said Colby. “You’re going to be having a long day or night out.”

Meanwhile, another customer on the bench beside me was getting her annual purchase of New Balance sneakers that Colburn’s orders for her. She likes New Balance because the sneakers are made in Maine, and they have a wide shoe box. She wears them all the time, and swears by strapping on the New England Overshoes (NEOS), those boot-like things with lugged soles that slip over shoes and are secured by a nylon strap or velcro.

The NEOS are durable and relentless, unlike those barbed grippers, “that you lose halfway to the woodshed and find sometime later in the spring,” she said.

She shops Colburn’s, “because everyone is nice and why would I go anywhere else?”

Then she slipped another word in edgewise.

“Get those Darn Tough socks,” she said. “Made in Vermont.”

Colby Horne doesn’t mind when shoppers come in and try on 50 million shoes. He is well accustomed to human indecision.

“I’m here to sell shoes,” he said. “The best way is to try all options. At the end of the day, I don’t have to wear them. You have to wear them.”

The flow of traffic through this downtown Belfast store is constant on the last day of October. The busy season for Colburn’s is April through December, nine months of intensity, punctuated by three months of calm — the way of the Maine economy.

“Nine months out of the year, we go full bore in Maine,” said Colby. “And we find ways to make it through the other three months.”

One woman walks into the store. “I need expert shoe advice,” she said.

“That’s what we offer,” said Brian Horne.

He looked at her shoe and determined the velcro was too gummed up to adequately attach. He cleaned it for her.

An elderly gentleman slowly moved through the store.

“Going hunting this weekend?” Brian said. “No,” the man drawled. “But I am looking at boots.”

Two younger men strode to the back of the store, one of them, wearing a hunter orange cap, told Brian, “I need to order some new boots.”

Brian Horne pulled the man’s card from the drawer and checked his stats. “You want ranger hip boots,” he asked. “Steel toes?”

“Yep,” said the man, after conferring with his friend. It’s winter in Maine, and when you work outdoors in the woods, you need something substantial to protect your feet.

For Colby, who first started working at Colburn’s in high school, the best part of making a living selling shoes in this store is the family tradition itself, the pride that comes from it all.

“It’s really cool to see generations of people come through here,” he said.

“I was 16 when I started here,” said Brian Horne. “It’s a good feeling to get people what they want. To please the customer.”