You can walk on...pagodas

This isn't the first time I've written about wooden shoes. I have talked about traditional Dutch shoes, about shoes that helped you get through mud without getting dirty or modern sports shoes with treated wooden parts. This time, however, the subject impressed me because it is, first and foremost, an initiative not to let traditions die. And such an initiative must be presented, especially if it is also a success story.

The heroine of this story is LanVy Nguyen, who created the Saigon Socialite brand. She was a corporate executive in a large financial organisation in California when she started the story in 2007 in a Vietnamese factory. A new openness to the Vietnamese market has led many investors to come here in search of people with skills for certain trades, but also for cheap labor. Investment had boosted the factory, production was high and sales were up, which was reflected in the country's GDP. But all this development also had a side effect - it led to the very rapid destruction of the craft sector.

Sensing that the disappearance of artisans would also mean the destruction of the country's heritage, he and two partners - Thien-Nhien Luong and Spencer Ton - set up a non-profit organisation called Design Capital to help small traditional businesses. She also forms Fashion4Freedom, a brand incubator and resource for those looking for products that preserve traditional cultures.

To find authentic folk craftsmen go to the Forbidden City, the seat city of Imperial Indochina. Since ancient times, the city has had craftsmen all around supplying the city with the necessities. Visiting with her partners and a carpenter craftsman the area where the pagoda carvers used to be, she told them that she thought they could make some very "hot" shoes. She recalled how, in the past, it was customary for a woman, when she arrived home, to take off her shoes and tap the wooden soles of her shoes twice to announce her presence. Afterwards she would take the shoes to her armpits and bring them into the house, as a sign of her wealth and social standing. She thought that a business making shoes with carved wooden soles would not only be a success in the fashion world but also a way to preserve folk traditions and crafts.

Shortly after the visit, a local cobbler came to Design Capital for an equipment loan. He told her that the village shaman had divined in his chicken feet - a local ritual - that he would meet a very loud woman who would open wide the doors to his future. Although he made mostly men's shoes, the cobbler decided to work with Nguyen. That's how French leather met the ancient art of woodcarving pagodas.

Each pair of shoes takes 18 days to produce. In the first 12-14 days the soles are made. Local craftsmen draw traditional patterns on old wood, then carve them with tools handed down from father to son.

The wood, local aromatic essences, is dried, insulated and carved. The leather part is made and attached to the soles in 2 days, and at the end the soles are waxed and the joint area is dyed with local oils.

Fashion4Freedom not only produces shoes. There are plenty of other products that also involve the work and traditions of Vietnamese artisans. Nguyen draws on work from 48 different villages in her work, with 17 crafts. She has invested more than half a million dollars in education and equipment that has benefited more than 30,000 people in Vietnam.

Saigon Socialite is limited to producing 2000 pairs of shoes per year, with different sole designs each year. After the entire quantity is made, the cobbler and shoemaker return to their villages. The shoemaker will make shoes for the villagers and teach others the trade. The carpenter will help remove the effects of a typhoon and pass on his craft. And the leftover materials are used to make shoes for orphanages.

(source: coolhunting.com)