IT does not take rocket science to figure out that Marikina City has a shoe fetish.

This city in the eastern part of Metro Manila, which still has that old provincial feel and where many of the residents have managed to keep that distinct Rizal accent, is certainly entitled to it. It has been the center of the country?s shoe manufacturing industry for over a century.

Marikina even has the distinction of having crafted the world?s biggest pair of men?s shoes, measuring 5.5 meters long, 2.2 meters wide and 1.83 meters high?to prove that it is still a giant in the shoe sector. The city also houses part of the infamous shoe collection of former First Lady, and now Ilocos Norte representative, Imelda Marcos.

The Marikina shoe sector?s reach and influence, however, have suffered greatly in recent years due to the onslaught of competition?cheap shoes, mainly from China. This has prompted private firms and government agencies to devise strategies that would give the Marikina shoe sector a new spring in its step.

Town lore credits Laureano M. Guevara for having founded in 1887 the shoe industry that made Marikina famous here and abroad.

According to official accounts, the business-minded Guevara, or Kapitan Moy, saw an opportunity to make shoes that ordinary people could afford. Slippers and wooden clogs were readily available then, but not shoes which were quite expensive to make and thus, were only available to the elite.

Kapitan Moy wanted to learn how to make shoes, but the shoemakers in Manila were reluctant to teach him the craft. He decided to just learn it by himself.

Enterprising and determined, he bought himself a pair of imported shoes in Manila, brought them back to Marikina and asked the help of wooden shoe cobbler Tiburcio Eustaquio to undo the shoes so they could learn how to put the pieces back again.

After much trial, error and experimentation, Kapitan Moy and Eustaquio, assisted by Ambrocio Sta. Ines and Gervacio Carlos, managed to produce the first pair of Marikina-made shoes. Thus was born Kapitan Moy?s shoe shop and Marikina?s shoe making industry.

According to Marikina city?s website, the businessman saw to it that other Marikeños were taught the new skill at once, for he intended it to be a source of livelihood for a town that subsisted largely on fishing and farming. His townmates did embrace this new trade and Marikina?s local cobblers became among the best in the field.

Accounts show that for the greater part of the 20th century, Marikina was the biggest manufacturer of quality shoes. Between 1978 and 1982, Marikina?s women?s shoes and handbags made of snakeskin were the rave on Fifth Avenue, New York City. In 1983, Marikina produced 70 percent of the shoe production of the Philippines, which was estimated at 30 million pairs.

For having started it all, Kapitan Moy was honored as the ?Father of the Shoe Industry.? His home near the Marikina church has been transformed into a cultural and heritage zone and nearby is Marikina?s Shoe Museum, the country?s first and one of a few of its kind in the world.

Those years of rapid production, however, have unfortunately become a distant memory. Local shoe brands point to price competition from abroad, the difficulty among local artisans to keep up with the latest designs and the lack of know-how of new technology as major factors behind the decline.

The Shoe Museum, the crafting of the world?s largest shoes and the introduction of the Sapatos Festival in 2002 are part of many efforts from the local government to keep the tradition of shoe-making alive in Marikina.

In 2003, former Marikina mayor Marides C. Fernando put in place a Marikina Shoe Design Center to provide local shoe designers access to computers so they can update themselves on the latest designs in the world?s fashion capitals. The council also approved a resolution then requiring local shoe manufacturers to use the French sizing system to put the industry at par with the rest of the world and to standardize production.

Private shoe companies are doing their part as well. Some shoe brands, among them Via Venetto, have refused to cave in to the temptation to turn to China for cheaper supplies. Their logic is that while Marikina may not be able to compete in price, it can very well compete in quality, and that is what discriminating buyers are willing to pay top peso for.

Via Venetto owner Ging Pajaro says that she still has 99 percent of Via Venetto shoes made in Marikina because her customers prefer the hand crafted quality of Marikina shoes that make them sturdier than those from China.

?China may be more updated, but because Marikina?s shoes are handcrafted, more care goes into the making of shoes. That?s why I may never go to China,? Pajaro says, ?Besides, we owe our growth to Marikina. We owe this industry a lot.?

For Mark Siggaoat, vice president of shoe manufacturer Manel?s Corp., the key to reviving the Marikina shoe industry is government support in terms of incentives, and assistance when it comes to design and manufacturing techniques.

?The share of Marikina shoes has been going down, but the industry is not a lost cause. We have to be able to upgrade it for us to compete,? Siggaoat says, ?We must not give up (Marikina?s local shoe industry) because it is there. It would be such a waste if we just let it die.? ?