Shoes that connect with your inner demon

WHILE WE groom our hair and faces according to how we think the world should see us, far too often, our choices in footwear betray who we really are. The legendary shoe designer Roger Vivier once said: “To wear dreams on one’s feet is to begin to give a reality to one’s dreams.” A Marikina-based shoe designer taps into one’s imagination and begins to allow his customers to live a life that they really want.

Joco Comendador once worked as a banker, despite the fact that his college thesis in De La Salle — College of Saint Benilde was about exporting handcrafted Filipino footwear (made by himself, of course) abroad. While he worked his nine to five, Mr. Comendador would design shoes for fashion shoots. In 2016, he finally decided to open Joco Comendador: Footwear + Art.

Mr. Comendador makes men’s shoes for the “Work hard, party harder” club. Slip into a pair inspired by demons, or Sailor Soldiers from Sailor Moon, or even Pokemon. His Pikachu-inspired mules, for example, are made in yellow calfskin, incorporating the cartoon character’s red cheeks in suede. His Sailor Soldiers’ line, meanwhile, takes the color of a character’s skirt, and perforates the shoe with the character’s astronomical symbol. His series inspired by demons, meanwhile, have aggressive soles in red and black, and studded with gold spikes and embroidery to better reflect the demon within. Satan, for example, the Prince of Darkness, was executed with crocodile-embossed leather, and spiked with golden studs and skulls.

Of course, he makes classic lines as well, because you can’t break the rules when you don’t know them. Think black patent men’s opera pumps with black grosgrain bows, or else monkstaps done in burnished leather, or maybe a classic pair of oxfords with the vamps slightly modified.

During an interview with ����ý, he said that he’s inspired by what he reads and what he watches. To translate his imagination into footwear, into something real and tangible, he said: “I imagine a character as a person… I imagine [that] person walking in those shoes in everyday life.”

Of course, he makes sure they’re wearable by a normal person first, as he doesn’t want the pair to look too costume-y, “But at the same time, it still has [to have] a reference.”

“If you see a man who wears a really good shoe, then you should marry that man,” he says to his gay and girl friends.

The patriarchy has cheated men when it comes to the sartorial choices they make. Because of its expectations of what a man should look like, men are prevented from playing the game that the system has decreed to be only for women: fashion. While women have handbags and shoes that can reference certain eras or significant moments in history, men are told to choose between messengers, briefcases, or backpacks; oxfords, loafers, or sneakers. Another inspiration for Mr. Comendador come as a surprise even to him: stolid family men with desires not to toe the line with avant-garde footwear. “I got inspired and I went to pursue that market,” said Mr. Comendador.

While womenswear offers more chances for creativity, he says that it’s convenient for him to design men’s shoes because he gets to test them.

And apparently, there’s more money there. While women have several outlets for shoemakers to create their dreams for them, men rarely have that chance. “Women have a lot of [other] options,” he said. “Men are more inclined to [buy] custom-made footwear… they love it when it’s handcrafted for them.” Mr. Comendador’s pairs can usually fetch prices from P6,000 to P16,000.

A problem Mr. Comendador sees in the shoe industry, based on his experience, is the lack of support from the government to promote shoemakers like him and the artisans under his wing. There’s also a certain lack of materials, as Mr. Comendador says that based on his experience, local leathers crack and break easily. “If you want to target the luxury market, you really have to import.”

Since many local shoe brands have taken to having the shoes designed here and made in countries like China where the labor may be cheaper, few people who actually know how to make good-quality shoes are left who do work in the Philippines. As an example, Mr. Comendador says that his shoemakers are well into middle-age, and will soon become seniors. Right now, he’s training two young people though. “Baka matuto din sila (they might learn),” he said.

Mr. Comendador also holds workshops for people to make their own pairs, which, while an idea that sounds simple enough, stems from multiple reasons. One, it’s his answer to people who want him to go into mass-production. Instead people actually pay him to teach them how to make shoes, which they take home after the workshop. Secondly, it’s his answer to fast fashion: to allow a customer to reconnect with the production process. “Every fashion piece undergoes a long process,” he said. “I want people to experience what it’s like to make a shoe. We’re so enamored with fast fashion: buy this, buy that.” — Joseph L. Garcia

Mr. Comendador can be reached through Instagram at @jococomendador, and through Facebook at fb.com/jococomendador.