500px Photo ID: 136281609 - The main industry that Marikina is famous for – shoemaking – began in 1887 through the pioneering efforts of Don Laureano “Kapitan Moy” Guevarra. Kapitan Moy started experimenting with shoemaking when the soles of his own imported shoes broke. For want of a shoe repair shop nearby he tried to fix his shoes. At that time only the Chinese located in Manila were engaged in shoe repair and manufacture. Marikenos were already engaged in the limited production of slippers and clogs, or bakya, even before the coming of the Spaniards...Kapitan Moy separated the different parts of his shoes, studying closely the intricacies of how the shoe was put together. Tiburcio “Busyong” Eustaquio, a wooden clog maker, made a pair of shoe lasts for Kapitan Moy to help him in his experiments. The tools used in making the first Marikina shoes were borrowed from blacksmiths in Marikina and Pasig. Kapitan Moy, after several unsuccessful attempts, succeeded in making the first pair of Marikina shoes.

Danielle Ayag / 500px

Marikina Shoe Museum

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A must for Imelda Marcos junkies is the Marikina Shoe Museum. There's the footwear of various Filipino luminaries on display here, but it's Imelda’s shoes people come for – about 800 pairs of them, lined up in rows behind glass cases. That’s only about 25% of the hoard left behind in Malacañang Palace by the eccentric former First Lady.

Take the LRT-2 to its last stop (Santolan) and then a ‘San Mateo’ jeepney to City Hall on central Shoe Ave, a short walk from the museum.

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