Shoes Blog April Archive

The Festival For Cinderella

By Sole Reaper at 04/29/08 00:26

Shoe making is one of the major industries of the Philippines. Shoes locally made are exported in Italy, France, United States and other parts of the world.

The major shoe maker in the country is Marikina City, dubbed as the country's Shoe Capital. Marikina is one of the fastest growing metropolitan haven, just a 20 minute ride from the famous Antipolo City, 10 minutes from Ortigas business district and 30 minutes ride from Makati and Manila.

Annually, the city holds what they call the grandest Shoe Festival in the world. The festival is held on the famous Marikina River, a super long river that cuts the city. The festival is participated by different towns and even different countries. Last year, the festival attracted China, Thailand and Australian delegates.

The only criteria for the festival is that you have to make a colorful float that will run for the duration of the river ride and in the middle of the float is your giant shoe entry, yes, a giant shoe. This is exactly the festival for Cinderella wannabes!

There are a lot of different types of shoes that joins the festival each year. Some are giant boots, high heels, running shoes, formal safety shoes, sandals and others. The winner of last years festival was the one in the photo, titled Cinderella's Golden Giant Shoe. The festival is held every September and last for a week.

Marikina also holds the Guinness World Record for having the biggest all-sho-material shoe. There are bigger shoes in the world but they are made of concrete, wood, and other not-for-shoe materials. But the one in Maikina was manually stitched from leather and wood soles. The giant shoe is made with love from the greatest shoe makers in the world.

Tags: shoe festival • marikina city philippines • giant shoes • golden cinderella shoes •
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The Super Shoes for Super Heroes

Super Heroes, the ones who are destined the world from outside domination and eradicate the bad elements in the world. But this superheroes cannot save the world using their powers alone, they need a weapon - they need shoes. Can you imagine superheroes without shoes? I have not seen a superhero wearing no shoes at all.

These superheroes usually use boots. I wonder what The Flash uses for running, that must be one tough shoe! Anyway, the shoes in the photo doesn't look much like some kind of superhero shoes, right? But actually, they are. In the Philippines, if you work for your family, if you work more than the regular working hours, if you have more than yourself to feed, you send some other people to school, then you are already considered a superhero. So the biggest mall company in the country recently launched a shoe line called Superhero Shoes Co. that is intended to sell shoes for the superheroes of our lives.

They sell it for the lowest possible price. The one in the photo is one of the type of shoes they are selling. Those are called Rubber Man Shoes, named after the Pinoy Hero, Rubber Man. There are also other shoe categories in the store called Wonder Shoes - for Wonder Woman and Wonder Boy inspired shoes, Super Shoes - for the ultimate shoe needs, Hyper Shoes - for sports minded shoe lovers, Bummer Shoes for those who just stayed mostly at home and waits to be saved, and the Flying Shoes - shoes that are very light and very much comfortable to wear you feel almost not wearing it.

This shoes promised comfort, style, quality and best of all, cheap price.

The Filipino citizens are hardworking but hardly earning. The wage is not too low but still not good enough to do leisurely stuffs. And this offered supershoes for the mass people is really a good move to help those people who are having a hard time buying expensive shoes.

The Circle Of Shoes

"If you would like to know your real friends, look at them through their shoes." -Myself.

Haha, that quotation is the shiznit! Really, sometimes you can tell you're friend's real identity by the shoes they are wearing.

My grade school classmate did not reveal he was gay not until we noticed it by his shoes. You know that feeling, like you were good friends, he will sleep in your house, eat there, treat your parents like they were his parents, only to find in the end that he is gay? Haha.

It was actually an issue before than another friend opened up, and noticed that our good friend is wearing some pink clothe shoes. Whenever we asked him about it, he will just say "it's in!". But then one time we saw him on the mall shopping for some girl shoes and that's when he admitted he really is gay. Anyways, we're still friends now, but he can't sleep in my house anymore haha.

I also got to encounter a bunch of girls, maybe they are best friends, and they are wearing different kinds of shoes. Maybe its because its summer that is why they are wearing mostly strapped-shoes and sandals. But you can see that they are all fashionistas. They have their own statement and they can walk perfectly with their shoes without trying hard.

Also, if you encounter people wearing combat shoes, what comes in your mind? Specially if they are girls? I don't usually talk to girls wearing combat military shoes because I believe that their fathers are in the military haha and they are not the ones to messed with.

Sketchers Sneakers Advertisement

This ten second supposed tv advertisement... really wants to make me go out and buy some sketchers sneakers. I think they could have make just an effective ad in 1 second! What do you think?

YouTube Video

Maybe the ad that got banned in Isreal showing a tied up guy was better. I mean, who wants to get their sneakers soggy in the ocean?

Handpaint Shoes by by Shannon

I found this youtube video of some pretty nifty hand painted shoes:

YouTube Video

After you view the video, make sure to check out Kringwear for photos of lots of hand painted shoes and other clothing and information on how you can get some custom hand painted stuff too!

The Drama Shoes

I remember a few ago when I was still a photography student, we had a drama class that we needed to create scenes by using pictures alone. You have to make at least 300 shots in sequence that will be recreated to a slide show to create a story. We had to finish it in 3 hours. The cramming started.

We were almost done, we have the scripts ready, we have the characters ready, the photographers, propsmen are all set. But then we noticed we have a problem on one of the scenes. One of the propsmen complained that the shoes are not fit for the scene, the shoes, he said, are too ugly for the scene.

So we had to look for a new one, something that looks dramatic or something that will at least blend with the situation of a boy who was beaten up by a car. If we use leather shoes, its not appropriate for a boy wearing a formal shoes walking on a deadly highway. Reasonings like that are killing us, we really need to find the perfect shoes. Time's ticking. 20 minutes more and we have finish the other photo-drama except for that one.

We were loosing hope and we all decided to use whatever shoes are there. Until our professor came to check us up. We saw his very elegant Jack Purcel shoes in green, that time it was hard looking for a green one with that ALL STAR written across. Without a word, we asked him to sit down, and we took his shoes off. He looks very confused and a bit annoyed but his face is as hilarious as always.

In a few seconds, the scene is done. And we were asked to give an explanation. He just laughed after we explained it.

For the two other judges, we got perfect 10's. We got 8 from our professor haha, but that was fine, we still got the highest grade among other groups.

I miss those times, where you crammed or rushed because little things, little details worth a lot and mean a lot. That's the life of a student I guess.

That is our shoe story, how about yours?

Holes Are Designs

I was walking my dog around the village when suddenly someone tapped my back. It was my friend Franco. At 9am in the morning, he was just about to go home. He attended a birthday party of his friend last night. He looked so tired and sleepy so I told him to sit while we talk. I always bring my camera everywhere I go and its a lucky day I guess because the lucky shoes that we bought in the mall some 2 years ago is still the one he is using. Time to take some lucky pictures.

It was a green rubber shoes from Nike that we bought in a shoe mall sometime in 2006. It cost around 75$ that time, but now its only 30-50 at max. I told him he is such a thrifty man for not changing his shoes for the last 2 years. He replied its because the shoes still has its charms.

I recall his girlfriend at present became her girlfriend because of those shoes. Moira, her girlfriend, was the sales lady on the mall where we bought those shoes. Actually he just got interested by the girl that led him to buy the shoes haha. From then on he constantly said, and was a popular joke in our friends group, that the shoes must have been blessed with lucky dust from the stock room haha.

But I insist that he must put the shoes to rest and put it on a safe place and not on their shoe rack where rats constantly eat shoes haha. And I noticed the holes of his shoes.

Me: Yo Fran, where's the goo? Put this to rest and get the hole healed. Fran: Those aren't holes idiot! Those are fashionable designs.

Haha, after the long silence, he began to snore on the village bench as I crawl my way away from him haha. The village guard will do his job and act accordingly to the sleeping man. I'm an idiot, really. Haha.

Of Soles and Souls

I remember when I was still a student, there is this one photoshoot that is weird enough to be called a photoshoot. The Theme was "Of Soles and Souls". Obviously its about shoes for the soles, and how about souls you asked?

This is the weird part, the souls participation in the photoshoot is showing some love in the photo with just their feet and their shoes being shown, nothing more. It is not necessarily love, but at least an emotion that will be enclosed in the photo, something that will make you smile whenever you see it.

I chose to take a photo of my shoe and the shoe of one of my female bestfriend, Allie Heineken. I was wearing a green sketchers rubber shoes that time and she wore a Korean pair of sandals. But since we are incorporating emotion on the photo, we decided to make it black and white.

Still part of the photoshoot, it required us to take more photos of peoples feet and shoes. I have tons of cool shoes photos of my friends and persons I just meet on the road.

One time I was inside the bus and I got interested in a ladies pair of shoes, they are so big for her body. Looks like a military combat shoes, haha, too big for a pretty lady.

Sometimes, our shoes tells us who we are, and shows the personality of some other person. I will be sharing more of these photos next time and I do hope you will do the same! Let us celebrate the shoe life!

ShoeCartel.com | Comparison Shoe Shopping Interview

Name of your website? ShoeCartel.com | Comparison Shoe Shopping Your name? Trevor Soares Your Location (city, etc) Mclean Please give us a short summary of your website? ShoeCartel.com is a price comparison service dedicated to helping consumers quickly identify the shoes they want with a price that fits. We strive to help consumers make educated buying decisions by providing free services and tools that streamline the online shopping experience. Read more: ShoeCartel.com | Comparison Shoe Shopping Interview [click] Tags: price comparison • web interview • 0 Comments. - Permalink