Shoeshine man wants to add ‘glow’ to people’s steps

It's nearing 7 p.m. on a recent Monday, prime shoeshine time, and Gino Alexander stands ready to face an onslaught of customers with scuffed, dirty shoes.

His brushes and creams are neatly arranged on his workstation. The sign hanging above his stand advertises $6 shines at Jackpot Shoe Shine in the Stratosphere. Alexander, 77, awaits the public's dingy cowhide, scratched ostrich, cracked alligator skin, any kind of leather he can unleash his 50 years of shoeshine knowledge upon.

"It will pick up soon. Last Friday, I did 18 shines," he says. "You see it all the time. People walk by, stop and look at their shoes and then double back."

A guy walks out of an elevator with his family and looks at Alexander with his perfectly groomed mustache and his crisp pinstriped shirt standing next to his brushes and polish. The man looks down at his sandals, looks again at Alexander and walks away.

That scene repeats several times as men pass by and look almost longingly at the big chair with a folded newspaper on the seat, sports section prominently displayed. They are all wearing sandals or sneakers.

None of them stops for a shine.

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Alexander opened his Jackpot Shoeshine stand three years ago in the Stratosphere.

He has since branched out into The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas, and, business is so good, he says he is ready to open additional stands.

But shoeshine stands, once a regular amenity found in nearly every Las Vegas casino, have dwindled in recent years thanks to a shift toward casual dress. Still, they're a hallmark of a certain kind of hotel and give an impression that management wanted for the Stratosphere, says David Grolman, vice president of hotel operations.

"Some properties in town have cut back or removed their stands," Grolman says. "I think it just legitimizes the property. It's no different than having to have the newest gaming technology or good restaurants. You have to have the amenities people expect to see, even if they don't use them."

Grolman put the word out a few years ago that they were looking for a shoeshiner. They had lots of interest, but Alexander was the obvious choice.

"Gino's this little old guy dressed to the nines," Grolman says. "When I was a kid, I always had this picture of what a shoeshine guy looked like. He had on a vest, a tie, perfect shoes. Gino is what a shoeshine guy is supposed to look like. And to this guy, there's honor in being the shoeshine guy. To Gino, it's a profession."

The hotel's carpenters built a stand to Alexander's specifications. He rents the space from the hotel.

Several independent contractors work for him, and he plans to add some late-night shifts and additional employees. They pay him $15 a shift, $20 for swing, and then keep whatever they earn. So good shoeshiners need to be motivated if they want to earn anything, he says.

You're not going to get rich shining shoes, but it's a good living, Alexander says.

"It's an interesting, mind-occupying job. It's not going to make you a millionaire, but it'll make you a good living and you'll go home with money every night if you have your head on right," Alexander says.

On an average night, Alexander does anywhere from six to 17 shines. His record is 32 shines in eight hours.

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Sometimes, the best-laid plans go awry, but that doesn't mean you scrap your plans.

Alexander, a father of three and grandfather of one, planned to hand over his shoeshine business to his son so he could retire. But his son died last year of a brain aneurysm.

"It was the biggest tragedy of my life," says Alexander, who is no stranger to tragedy. "Yeah, just like when Dean Martin's son passed away. He went down the tube, too." 

In 1985, Alexander's wife died of cancer. He has never remarried. Alexander kept the family together, says his daughter, Darla, who lives in Florida.

"He never let us forget where we came from, who we are," Darla Alexander says. "He always told us to do our best, and he has never given up. Through all his hard times he went through, struggles, defeats, he never gave up. And to this day, he has never given up."

Alexander grew up in Hubbard, Ohio, the son of a steelworker and a homemaker.

His mother was his inspiration and the person who taught him how to handle the best, and worst, in life.

When he would come home from school crying because his classmates made fun of his arm -- Alexander was born with a bent arm -- she told him it would be all right.

Every week, his mother baked 20 pizzas and sold them out of their home to surrounding businesses for lunch. She used that money to pay for several operations on Alexander's arm.

"She always told me all my life: 'Have the right attitude son. Be kind to people, and you'll go anywhere in life,' " Alexander recalls. "I've been through some tragic things, but I never let that hinder my destination in life. What else you going to do?"

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People move to Las Vegas with dreams of becoming Strip headliners.

They want to sing or act or dance. Alexander wanted to shine shoes.

He was 67 when he moved to Las Vegas from Hubbard, with plans to create a shoeshine empire that he would then hand over to his only son.

Alexander started shining shoes in the uniform store he owned in Hubbard for 40 years. He sold the store and moved here. Las Vegas was a better market for his plans.

"You got more tourists. It's a 24/7 town and it will never die," Alexander says. "This is paradise. When I'm giving a shine, people tell me they come here to have a good time and they don't care about pinching pennies."

He got his foot in the door of the local shoeshine world by working for other stand owners as a contractor. Alexander developed his business plan for seven years, and when he finally went out on his own, he thought he had a winning formula for success.

"Anybody can shine your shoes," Alexander says. "I make them glow."

That's his company's motto: Your shoes will glow with every step or your money back.

There's an art to shining shoes right, Alexander says. And it's a dying art. There's more to it than spreading some polish on a shoe; it's all about the attitude. Make the customer feel like a million bucks and be nice to people. It comes back 10 times over, he says.

"By the time a guest walks up, you've got 30 seconds to decide what you're going to do to make their shoes look better," Alexander says. "I enjoy pleasing people and making their shoes glow every step."

Contact reporter Sonya Padgett at spadgett@reviewjournal.com or 702-380-4564. Follow@StripSonya on Twitter.