Wong is the second-generation shoemaker and owner of Hong Kong Shoe Store, where the famous shoe designer Datuk Jimmy Choo apprenticed decades ago. — Picture by Steven Ooi KEGEORGE TOWN, May 16 — The festive season is usually the time shoemaker Wong Heng Mun is busy filling up orders for custom-made shoes, sometimes with orders backing up to two months.
Sung Choy apprenticed with an experienced and skilled shoemaker in Klang when he was in his teens before moving around several places including Singapore to learn from other shoemakers. Heng Mun said business was so good and the shop became so well-known in the 1960s that people were seeking his father out to apprentice with him, including Choo. “People often thought we were using his fame to make our shop famous but it was not true, our shop was famous back in the 1960s even before him,” he said.
“Everything came to a halt, business dropped to zero for months and the only thing that kept us going was some regular customers who came to us to repair their shoes,” he said. Due to the nature of his business, going online is not an option at all even though the shop has a Facebook page. He said some people have wider feet and without proper measurements, the shoes might end up being too tight for them even if the correct size was made.