Marikina Shoes - World class Filipino footwear
Although, the Marikina shoe industry is facing hard times, the Marikeños are still holding on to their shoemaking tradition. The resiliency of the city’s shoe industry is known despite the inroads of cheaperimports from China, Korea and the US.
The government’s aggressive embrace of trade liberalization and unchecked smuggling, not to mention the Filipino’s preference for foreign brands, are serious blows to the local manufacturers, but not strong enough to sap their strength. Marikina-made shoes are still in demand in the country and abroad.
Big department stores have bought Marikina supplies in an effort to promote local made products and to help Philippine shoe enterprises too.
Nevertheless, the Marikina shoe industry is the story of a people’s century-old showcase of never-say-die attitude. Despite stiff competition from cheaper and stateside rivals, homegrown shoemakers remain alive and profitable in Marikina.
And with superior quality, superb designs, affordable rates, local patronage, continuous investment, better marketing channels, assistance from the private sector and support from the government, this native industry will continue to flourish in the generations to come.
The Marikina shoe craftsmanship started in 1887 with the pioneering venture of Don Laureano Guevara, or Kapitan Moy, who bought a pair of shoes only to disassemble, dissect and study its make for duplication. By trial and error, Kapitan Moy and his friends learned how to put them back together, thus laying the foundation for the country’s shoe capital.
After introducing the experiment to interested parties, neighbors and friends joined the shoe-making bandwagon and soon the town (now a city) had a livelihood aside from farming and fishing. Since then, Marikina shoemakers had become icons of a people’s inventiveness, as well as models of unwavering determination that would not sway or bow down despite tremendous economic pressures and socio-political woes.
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