The shoes really did make this man
Kim graduated from the Heungnam Technical School in North Korea, and worked in Hamheung, South Hamgyong Province, before coming to Seoul.
In the beginning, all of the shoes in Kim’s store were made by hand. But Kim was eager to standardize shoe production, and as soon as he could afford it he started buying the equipment he needed to go into mass production.
Kim started mass producing shoes in the early 1960s after he opened his first branch in Gwanghwamun, central Seoul.
The ready-made shoes were a great success. Compared to the shoes made by hand available at the time, Kumkang offered shoes of different sizes and designs, and customers could try the shoes on before they made their purchase, all of which made the store popular.
As time went by, Kumkang opened a number of branches around Seoul. In particular, the Gwanghwamun and Myeongdong branches in central Seoul were popular with college graduates and pre-recruits.
Business got so good that store managers began closing the shops temporarily just to serve all of their customers. When the shop was packed with people, the store manager would give number plates to waiting customers and would then close up temporarily. Later, as customers left and the stores became less crowded, the store managers would open the store again to let more customers in to shop for shoes.
During peak seasons, the line of customers waiting to pay for their shoes at the Jongno branch stretched almost to the Gwanghwamun area.
At the end of the 1970s, Kumkang was the first to introduce shoe certificates, which sparked an industry-wide growth spurt. The certificates could be used like cash, and other brands followed suit and printed certificates of their own.
During the 1990s, some brands suffered from financial instability because they promoted excessive discounts in order to circulate money. Some even went bankrupt during the Asian financial crisis before the millennium.
Kumkang Shoes, however, has survived all the ups and downs, and currently manages 30 different brands as the nation’s major shoemaker. So far, some 200 million pairs of shoes have been manufactured under the Kumkang Shoes brand. If put together end to end, the shoes would form a line long enough to circle the earth two and a half times.
By Choi Ji-young [angie@joongang.co.kra]
with the Korea JoongAng Daily
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