Shoes from China spells death to the local shoe-industry

MARIKINA CITY - In a bid to revive the local shoe industry, the Association of Filipinos in Footwear Industries, composed of more than a hundred Filipinos engaged in shoe industry all over the world, vowed to strengthen the Filipino shoe manufacturers and businesses in Marikina.

Juliet Bautista, Nike operations director in China, said the Association's mission is "to serve as a unifying force among all Filipinos in the footwear industries outside and inside the of the Philippines so that we can maintain our competitive advantage in the international arena and sustain this in the next generation of Filipinos to come."

According to Bautista, what the country needs is "innovation." She cited that the country will not be able to cope with global competition if there is no improvement, stressing, "no innovation and they will die."

Identifying the causes of the country's stagnation, Wolverine Worldwide Jojo Dancel rued the lack of support industries in the country.

Dancel said that imported shoes from China swamp the country and local shoes cannot compete.

"To compete with cheap China-made shoes, we sacrifice the quality of our local shoes para lang mabenta (just to make it marketable) but actually nawawala ang integrity in sapatos (the shoe loses its integrity)," he lamented.

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This is a documentary
by GMA Network's Jessica Soho
tackling this issue

video courtesy of GMA Network and Jessica Soho

Liliw's Tsinelas Festival

LILIW, Laguna -- Slippers can never go out of fashion, whatever season it is. One can find the some of the nicest collection of trendy slippers and shoes, not in the malls but in a small, warm town in Laguna called Liliw, a three-hour drive from Manila.

Surprisingly, although Liliw has been quietly into the footwear industry for almost 50 years now, it was only three years ago when the Liliw Tourism Council made it formal to mark an annual "Liliw Gat Tayaw Tsinelas Festival" for the town. Through the festival, the council hopes to boost local tourism; have a vibrant industry which in return, will help the town improve economically.

The footwear industry in this part of the province is a sought-after attraction especially by local tourists. Liliw is now known as the "Footwear Capital of Laguna" and people all over Metro Manila are going all the way down South to check out the latest designs in slip-ons, sandals and slippers.

Thanks to the first festival and all the attention it had then, businessmen and plain customers are mostly returnees going ga-ga over the thriving town of Liliw, especially during summer and Christmas seasons.

At recently "Liliw Gat Tayaw Tsinelas Festival", store owners admitted that the sales escalated due to the festival. With the help of print media and television, curious travelers troop to Liliw just to see what the town had to offer.

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Unang Hirit's Coverage of Liliw's 2008 Tsinelas Festival
video courtesy of Unang Hirit, GMA Network

Sapin sa Paa na gawang Laguna

Hindi lang sa Liliw, Laguna mabibili ang magagara at
matitibay na tsinelas, sandalyas at sapatos dahil maging
sa Pagsanjan ay meron din!

Lifted from Unang Hirit's "Only In The Philippines" segment
(GMA-7 12.10.2003).
Producer, writer, offline editor: John Lumabas
Cameraman: Toto Romano
Online Editor: Juden Casidsid