Trendsetters wear SSST shoes

She wanted to learn how to make shoes since she was a little girl. She had no idea she would finally find a chance to learn the skill in Korea, which she did not miss it. This is a story of Jehanne Bosco, a French woman, 24, who cannot speak Korean at all but stays in the Seongsu-dong Handmade Shoes Town in Seongdong, Seoul.

On Tuesday, the French woman was in shoemaking class conducted by masters of shoemaking, free of charge at the education center of the Seongsu-dong Handmade Shoes Town. Since instructors cannot speak French, verbal communication is impossible. But the young woman learns by watching her teachers and imitating their skills.

Bosco`s family runs a shoe business in France. She came to Seoul last December with her friends and was fascinated by people’s fashion styles and sense of decorating themselves in Seoul’s Hongik University and Itaewon areas. Before coming to Korea, only thing she knew about Korea was Psy and Gangnam Style. She also liked the shoes people were wearing, and came to Korea again in January to work in collaboration with Korean designers. In the mean time, she found the news about shoemaking class in the handmade shoes town. She instinctively knew it was what she really wanted to do and applied for the class right away despite the fact that the class would continue for five months from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.

○ A dream for the handmade shoes town

Like Bosco, about 10 people attend the shoemaking class at the education center. Wu Jeong-hyeon, education chief of the Seongsu-dong Handmade Shoes Association and Cooperative, said, “Masters with decades of experience of making high quality shoes in Seongsu-dong had no successors. So we established a free class with the help of the Seongdong District Office to nurture successors of shoemaking masters. Early this year, more than 70 people applied for a class of 20. We expect more than 100 people will apply for the class for the second half of this year.

The number of shoe factories has shrunken from about 800 in the early 2000s to about 350 now. The shoe town lost its vigor because the high-end shoe market was taken over by import brands while mid-and-low quality shoes can no longer compete with cheap Chinese shoes in Korea. However, the shoe business owners established a cooperative and an education center, and young people have responded to their efforts to raise next-generation shoemakers.

Chairman of the Seoul Seongsu-dong Shoemaking Association said, “I have a dream that someday Seongsu-dong will become a Mecca of high-end shoes because now I see young people who want to open handmade shoe shops after learning here.”

A 29-year-old man in the class also takes the class seriously. He is planning to launch a brand of handmade shoes and formal dress after marrying his girl friend who works for a fashion business. He said, “Five-month class is not enough to make quality shoes like masters here. I’m going to learn for five more years here before launching our own brand.”

○ SSST enters a department store

Kim Min-gyu, a shoe buyer of Lotte Department Store, often comes to Seongsu-dong for business. In June last year, Kim found a shop under the Seongsu-dong Handmade Shoe Town’s own brand "SSST." High quality shoes were sold at one third of the price the shoes with the same quality sold at department stores. Kim felt sorry for such good shoes were sold only in the shop in Seongsu dong, so he called the chairman. “Would you want to sell your shoes in our department store?” The chairman and Kim worked together to launch a special event titled “Special Sale of Handmade Shoes” on the basement floor at the Jamsil branch of the Lotte Department Store on Wednesday. A whopping 150,000 people visited the area each day.

Though the event will continue only until next Tuesday, it holds significance to SSST because handmade shoes from Seongsu-dong meet department customers for the first time under the SSST brand. Kim Myeong-sik, a 73-year-old meister of shoemaking who began making shoes at the age of 13, will demonstrate the production of handmade shoes from Saturday through Sunday just like meisters of Ferragamo or Gucci do at similar events.

In the beginning, some shoemakers opposed the idea of selling their shoes in department stores because some were afraid that they might face pressure from other shoe brands at department stores while others wanted to continue making shoes only and have no part in other activities such as running or maintaining shops. However, shoemakers reached an agreement that, in order to survive, they must produce high-end shoes in which the skills of meisters are fully utilized.

Sponsored by Seoul Metropolitan Government, SSST is going to attach QR code to let people know their shoes are all handmade in Seongsu-dong. When establishing the cooperative this year, members made a commitment that they would not give in to the convenience of the machine. Instead, they were determined to promote that their shoes are handmade in Korea using high-quality leather.

Chairman Park said, “We have many shoemakers whose skills are no less than any Italian meisters. But Korean shoemakers think of themselves as just factory workers believing that they are not enough to be called meisters due to lack of school education. The first step to revive the Seongsu-dong shoe business will be helping these shoemakers take pride in their skills.”

kimhs@donga.com