VOX
This lack of education and awareness has led to the
resurgence of old practices on all sides. From the
producer side, shoemakers get paid piece-rate with no
job security. It keeps senior shoemakers from teaching
the next generation properly in order to lessen the
chance of training up their competitors.
The brand/workshop owners do not properly educate
themselves and instead rely on what their suppliers
tell them, resulting in misinformation and misleading
marketing at times. On the consumer side, the lack of
awareness in the mode of production has led them to
compare handcrafted/assembled leather shoes to synthetic
mass-produced, imported shoes being sold by retail and
mall brands. This short reprieve is doomed to repeat the
old mistakes and make new ones if we do not address it
by injecting new ideas and processes which will make
our industry progressive.
These issues have been around for a while, and we
have yet to see significant progress towards fixing our
industry. From what I understand, most businesses/
brands that the authorities listen to are more concerned
about making a quick buck rather than creating a
sustainable process and taking steps to ensure that
Marikina, or even Philippine shoemaking, thrives for
the next generations of Filipinos.
Here are some steps which I see are needed in order
to create a more sustainable manufacturing/service
industry:
Professionalize the industry – This entails
regularization of artisans; with this, you get a proper
seniority system where your artisans can move up like
in any corporate structure. The salary system will be
applied in order to provide for vertical movement for
the artisans.
But before we can apply this, we need to structure
local operating standards based on international
standards. As of now, the industry is using a system that
is loosely based on the US system. The main problem
is now is that most local shoemakers do not know basic
international standard sizing so they rely purely on the
last that is given to them by the shoe last factory. The
shoe last factory operator himself does not know the
basic standards in sizing and fit hence creates a problem
where the sizing system is unstructured. The grading
of the lasts are so bad that unless the workshop is doing
purely custom, the production will suffer grading
issues. Without job security and a progressive
compensation system, no new generation of shoemakers
will be produced. Who’d ever want to get stuck in a
dead end career?
Regulate the business owners – To protect the
shoemakers, we need to establish a culture of mutual
respect. Currently, there is a culture of taking
advantage of each other. Business owners push down
compensation; shoemakers steal time and resources
from the workshop; the industry espouses
contractualization and the piece-rate system. Without
basic regulation, it is doomed to repeat past mistakes
all over again while eroding future chances of
reestablishing the industry. It has to start somewhere
and business owners have to initiate the change and
weed out unwanted elements slowly while establishing a
safe and secure working environment to grow future
generation of shoemakers. Baseline operating practices
should be set to regulate business behavior and prevent
oppressive and backward practices.
This entails having compliance incentives and
punitive measures for brands and businesses. Policies
should be set so that the industry will have operating
guidelines in order to ensure the dignity of our artisans
for the better and brighter future for the industry.
Develop the Industry – Proper identification
and segmentation of the industry is vital in order to
create policies targeted to help that specific segment
or population. Lumping together business owners,
brands and artisans/workers creates an anomalous policy
where those on top of the organization benefits while
the base suffers. This is a reflection of world economics
where the low and middle income suffer the brunt of the
effects of bad policies while those on top generally have
it better, and the only time when they suffer is when the
base dries up and they lose their relevance to the market.
Budgets and grants to the industry will be
misappropriated and wasted if it never even reaches the
target recipients. I know this is elementary knowledge,
but how come waste is still so prevalent now? It is
because our industries and policies are part of a system
which oppresses progression. You see, this is about
fixing a broken system. We have seen the industry fall
during the late 90s.
116