Chaw Kok Hoong is one of the few home-based handmade ladies leather shoe manufacturers still operating at Kampung Baru Seri Kembangan. His family has been living in Serdang since its founding, with each generation engaging in a different livelihood. His great-grandfather arrived in Serdang from China to mine tin; his grandparents planted rubber; his uncle used to work in Singapore, but returned to his hometown by the late 1960s or early 1970s and founded a shoe manufacturing business, specialising in handcrafting ladies leather shoes.
Due to dust and odour, the process of handcrafting shoes cannot be carried out in enclosed spaces such as an air-conditioned room; the work environment must be open and well-ventilated. The light green half-brick, half-wooden house beside Sungai Kuyoh, which is the Chaw family’s ancestral home, is converted into a workshop, yet preserving most of its original aspects. During his childhood, Chaw Kok Hoong often played at his ancestral home. As he grew up, he took up shoe manufacturing, picked up skills, and inherited the shoe manufacturing business. Their main job is OEM manufacturing for renowned brands. Shoe designs are provided by the brands, while Uncle Chaw and his team work together to produce exquisite handcrafted ladies leather shoes.
Ladies leather shoes come in a wide variety, including high heels, flats, sandals, boots etc. There are a dazzling array of styles, ever-changing according to international fashion seasons and trends, each has different cuttings and details. Upon confirming the suitable material and colour, Uncle Chaw places an order for the leather. Veteran workers cut and sew the shoe uppers according to the design. The soles are also made by Uncle Chaw using exclusive moulds he created at great expense.
Tools are scattered on the low workbench, a shoerack stands at one side, holding semi-finished and finished products. Uncle Chaw hunches over to nail a shoe upper to the shoe last, constantly hammering to flatten and smooth the leather. Next, he sands criss-cross patterns at the bonding area to increase friction, so that the upper and the sole can be attached firmly. After applying glue, mechanical pressing and sewing will ensure maximum durability. Then, the shoes are baked in an oven to dry and set. Ta-da! A pair of handcrafted ladies leather shoes is completed. This instant, Uncle Chaw musters all his strength to pull the shoes off the shoe last.
The final steps are carried out by Uncle Chaw’s personal “make-up artist”, who inserts the insoles, removes any remaining glue residue, and polishes the shoes. The clean and flawless end product is packaged into a shoebox and awaits pickup by the brand. For decades, Uncle Chaw only manufactured shoes for renowned brands, and did not sell at retail. Until about one year ago, he converted the living room of his ancestral home into a retail space, allowing walk-in customers to try on and make purchases, managed by his daughter.
Over the past few decades, the shoe manufacturing industry in Kampung Baru Seri Kembangan has undergone tremendous changes, facing external competition and internal strain, with ladies leather shoes more severely affected than mens leather shoes. The market prefers fast-fashion inexpensive synthetic leather shoes; foreign shoe factories offer streamlined production, high technology, and low costs that traditional shoe manufacturing is unable to match. Skilled local shoe manufacturers are mostly elderly and without successors, leading to the decline of home-based shoe manufacturing.
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【Locality Info】
Serdang is located in the southeast of Selangor, about 20 kilometres from Kuala Lumpur city centre, a highly modernised town in the outskirts. The place name originated from Livistona chinensis (Pokok Serdang), also known as the Chinese fan palm tree. After 1974, Serdang was renamed Seri Kembangan by the government, but residents still prefer to use the old name Serdang.
Serdang was established in the 19th century, many Hakka Chinese settled here due to tin mining. In the early 20th century, rubber plantations flourished. In the 1950s, under the Briggs Plan implemented by the British colonial government, Serdang became the largest Chinese new settlement in Selangor. At the time, most villagers made a living by tapping rubber, mining, growing vegetables, and raising pigs. With the decline of the tin mining industry in the 1980s, villagers switched to furniture manufacturing, construction, starfruit cultivation, and shoe manufacturing, and Kampung Baru Seri Kembangan gradually developed into an industrial zone.
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【Shoe Manufacturing in Kampung Baru Seri Kembangan】
In the 1990s, during the heyday of the shoe industry in Kampung Baru Seri Kembangan, there were 300 to 400 family-run or small and medium-sized shoe manufacturers in the village, and nearly 90% of the villagers were engaged in shoe-related industries. Since the 21st century, China’s shoe manufacturing industry, with its rapid mass production, advanced technology, and low costs, has attracted renowned brands to transfer their OEM orders, dealing a heavy blow to the local traditional shoe manufacturing industry. Many small-scale shoe manufacturers have gone out of business, about 30 to 40 shoe manufacturers are still struggling to survive.
Nowadays, home-based shoe manufacturers are becoming increasingly rare in Kampung Baru Seri Kembangan. Most of them produce mens leather shoes and construction safety shoes, expanded their business and set up factories in industrial areas, so their original village homes now serve as retail space. There are only a handful of ladies leather shoes manufacturers like Uncle Chaw, let alone home-based. Skilled local shoe manufacturers in the village are gradually ageing; the younger generation pursues higher education and seeks other opportunities, and are therefore unwilling to inherit the traditional craft. Shoe manufacturers had no choice but to bring in foreign labourers. Despite spending an extremely long period training foreign labourers, once they mastered shoemaking skills, many return to their hometowns to set up factories and become competitors.
有你 UNI Production
Producer : Daniel Lim
Cinematographer : Amelia Lim / Michael Lerk
Drone : Daniel Lim
Video Editor : Amelia Lim
Copywriter : Pua Hui Wen
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