Not only well-heeled visit Seoul’s shoe street

Home > Business > Economy

print dictionary print

Not only well-heeled visit Seoul’s shoe street

테스트

A customer at Kaemyung Shoes in Uijuro 2-ga looks at men’s dress shoes.

Choi Nam-ho’s hands were full of custom-made black leather dress shoes last Thursday on the corner of the Yeomcheon Shoe Street, between Yeomcheon Bridge and Seoul Station in northern Seoul.

테스트

Visitors to Yeomcheon Shoe Street in Uijuro 2-ga in Jung District, northern Seoul, look at custom-made shoes last Friday.

Holding onto at least three pairs, the 54-year-old looked to see if there were any flaws on the sleek, shiny surfaces. “I don’t have time to come here often,” he said. “So when I do, I usually buy three to four pairs to last me a year.”

Song Ki-nam, owner of Kaemyung Shoes in the area, says he sees these kinds of visitors frequently. “Many of my regular customers come once or twice a year and buy many pairs of the same shoes,” he said. “Often, they say they can’t find the kind of custom-made shoes for this kind of money anywhere else in Seoul, especially in department stores.”

Song points to the rows of men’s dress shoes in his shoe store, around 30 square meters (36 square yards) or so, organized neatly on silver metal racks along the walls. The shoes, which the owner claims are 100 percent Korean leather made in his factory in Seoul, range in price from 40,000 won to 100,000 won ($33 to $82). Around 80 percent of the store’s operations are wholesale. Song sells shoes to department stores and individual shoe stores in Dongdaemun, Myeongdong and other districts.

테스트

Song has been running the store for around 20 years. He says the street’s heyday was in 1990s, just before the Asian financial crisis broke in the latter part of the decade. “The overall economy was in great shape and not many people were shopping online. Places like Dongdaemun and Myeongdong were also starting their revival, gathering new customers.”

The Yeomcheon Bridge area, in Uijuro 2-ga in Jung District, is known for being close to Seoul Station as well as news media headquarters, including the JoongAng Ilbo, YTN and The Korea Economic Daily.

During the early part of the 20th century, it used to be a storage area for cargo preparing to be shipped to other parts of the country from Gyeongseong Station (now Seoul Station).

After Korea’s liberation from Japan in 1945, shoe stores selling men’s dress shoes started opening up one after another. During the 1940s all the way up to the 1970s, the stores became widely popular with their inexpensive, high-quality leather shoes made from reformed, used leather from the U.S. military’s combat boots. Men’s dress shoes were made out of such sparse offerings.

“The leather shoes sold at the time were much cheaper than the custom-made shoes sold in downtown areas like Myeongdong,” said Park Mun-su, owner of Seongbo Shoes in the area. “Also, we had the added advantage of being near Seoul Station, which opened doors for us to start wholesale operations, supplying quality leather shoes to all parts of Korea.”

The street now includes around 50 shoe stores. Most of them focus on wholesale business but the owners say that around 10 to 20 percent of their monthly sales still come from retail customers. Around a third or so of the shops sell men’s shoes.

Park So-hee, 25, says she comes to the street often because it serves as one-stop shopping for shoes. “I’ve gotten so many compliments for this pair,” she says, pointing to strappy brown leather sandals she got custom-made at a shop there for a mere 80,000 won. “As a joke, I once told my friend that the shoes were Jimmy Choos that I’d bought on sale in Japan and she totally believed me!”

Park says that the stores on the street not only sell quality shoes at affordable prices but that the follow-up service is fantastic.

“Many of the owners have been making and selling shoes for over two to three decades. As far as shoe repairs go, this is the best place to come in Seoul by far,” Park says.

The owners say that business has not returned to its level during the early and mid-1990s.

“After the Asian financial crisis, a flood of cheap, China-made shoes started being sold in shops in Dongdaemun, Namdaemun and Myeongdong. I would say that around 90 percent of the lower-priced shoes you see in the vendors on the street and small shops in those areas are Chinese knockoffs made from fake leather,” said Ko Ji-hwan, owner of Goryeo Shoes.

“It’s hard to compete with those cheap knockoffs, especially in the wake of the recent global financial crisis. People, especially young people, don’t look for quality anymore - just the illusion of quality through copycat designs,” Ko said, letting out a sigh.

Internet shopping has also proved to be an obstacle, although not a major one, according to many owners on the street. Song says that online shopping has affected shoe stores less than clothing stores because “people are more afraid to purchase shoes online without trying them on compared to clothes.”

Owners like Ko, however, also have their own online shoe shops featuring store products. “To compete in this harsh economic climate, you need to keep up with the latest retail trends,” Ko said.


By Cho Jae-eun [jainnie@joongang.co.kr]
Log in to Twitter or Facebook account to connect
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
help-image Social comment?
s
lock icon

To write comments, please log in to one of the accounts.

Standards Board Policy (0/250자)