(Bloomberg) — It's scorching on the streets of Midtown Manhattan as Afonso Oliveira strides around the lunch-break crowds, unbent beneath his 45-pound, $350 industrial backpack. He is carrying everything that might be needed to tighten a leaking faucet at a digital marketing agency or repair a social network office's electrical outlets.

His feet move with a runner's rhythm in Salomon Speedcross trail-running shoes rather than the typical work boots of a handyman. The 27-year-old does marathons in his spare time, and he doesn't break a sweat moving between appointments.

It's difficult to keep up. "This job, walking is one of the things that comes with it," Oliveira tells me. "Usually I walk pretty fast. This is slow for me."