Despite being hailed as the Philippines' shoe capital, Marikina City, a suburb east of Manila, remains in want of a professional shoemaking industry.
Marikina earned the title "Shoe Capital of the Philippines" in 1956 after establishing a notable shoemaking industry and becoming the biggest manufacturer of shoes nationwide at the time. World War II disrupted the industry due to the scarcity of capital and raw materials. But it quickly picked up afterward, with the intervention of local and national leaders, and amid the entry of imported shoes.
Last year, the registered shoe manufacturers generated gross sales worth 2.16 billion Philippine pesos .