A person's choice of footwear is usually a good barometer of his or her life preferences. In Marikina, there is a wide array of shoe designs fit for various personalities
People from different walks of life know about the title that the city of Marikina held for a long time; for decades, shoemakers in the area have perfected the process of crafting the most stylish and durable footwear in the Philippines; ones that wrapped the feet of common townsfolk and ones that brought the adventurous Manileño to the world's most treasured places.
Marikina is the shoe capital of the Philippines, its significant year in shoemaking began through the efforts of Don Laureano "Kapitan Moy" Guevarra, the founder and father of the shoe industry in the city.
In 1887, Kapitan Moy served as Marikina's captain municipal and was credited for helping manufacture the first pair of shoes in the area. Historical accounts say that the captain ripped apart his pair of imported shoes to see how it was made and put it together again. Then, using the dismantled parts as padron or patterns, he was able to produce cheap canvas shoes that eventually evolved to leather tanned footwear made of imports from Europe.
Kapitan Moy's willingness to open up a small shoe store has ignited the interest of his community; soon every corner of Marikina has a shoe shop of its own.
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Philippines Trails Behind Other Shoe-Producing Countries
Despite its local success, the Marikina shoe industry never took off globally, this was because Chinese products, aided by low labor costs, took advantage of the situation and entered the country in hindsight. According to a 2005 study by Allen J. Scott, the shoe imports in the Philippines swelled between 1990 and 2003 with a growth from USD 20,022,000 to USD 50,491,000.
While this was happening, local shoe exports rapidly decreased by more than 50 per cent or from USD 78,001,000 in 1990 to USD 36,233,000 in 2003. However, Scott's research noted that a large portion of this export trade was comprised of foreign-owned athletic shoe factories.
"The industry has been subject to intense competition over the last decade or so as producers from other countries have penetrated deeply into domestic markets, in the Philippines while simultaneously blocking out many export opportunities for Filipino manufacturers," Scott said in his study. "Currently, the industry is in great disarray, and its future is extremely uncertain."
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