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Hi. Good morning. Today I'll be talking about shoe thinking or guys
in heels. Not so difficult to see but in the next 15 minutes, I shall discuss shoes and
how they help in solution-seeking - you have to scroll it up - peace making
love spreading and general
design development with occasional references to dating, friendships and shopping. Yeah.
So I was, ah, I was out with out with friends for drinks last year when I was introduced
to this set of very stylish friends. And, ahmm, very beautifully dressed people, very
stylish.
One of them - one of the more good-looking ones in the set chatted me up and asked what
I did for work. And I said that I worked for a bank which is true. But when he found out
my full name and that I used to be a shoe designer, his eyes grew larger and suddenly
was quoting lines from my interviews in past magazines and TV interviews years back.
And then he told me, "But you know what," and he found out I was in social development
work and then he told me, "But you know what? You can save the world by designing shoes."
And I was driving home and I thought, "I don't know how to save the world by designing shoes.
I don't know how that could happen."
So - but let's start with a small story, ahmm, about saving the world through shoes. Maybe
we were more eco-friendly with our designs, we actually could design and design shoes
to save the world.
But I'll tell you about the legend of The Eight-Leather Monster, a design project from
before. When you use leather to make shoes, you end up with a lot of extra cut-outs, so
those parts in light blue; so that's the leather in dark blue. The pattern is in yellow and
the cut-outs - the extra cut-outs, sorry, in light blue.
So in our factory years back, we would have sacks and sacks of cut-out leathers of different
kinds of leather from different kinds of animals. And we realized that we could use these different
leathers and put them together with very expert stitching into a nicer, more interesting shoe.
And we made one, we called it "The Eight-Leather Monster".
We felt that it was very beautiful but at the same time, the value came from putting
together waste products or waste leathers and selling it more expensively.
And we did a somersault in the idea and we thought, "You know what? Instead of making
it eight leathers, let's use not leather. Let's use vinyl." And it becomes a more interesting
somersault of an idea. And that shoe is mine. That's not me. That's a friend. But that's
not my feet. That's not my foot.
And then I thought, "You know what? We could design pairs also that remind us of what things
should be valued, what is important to us as Filipinos in this country to save the world,"
yeah?
So maybe we could create shoes that remind us about the environment, about biodiversity,
about animals and ecology. And this - this slide is for the ladies. It's, ahmm, the angel
- Angelfish shoe.
But really, so now I thought, "Is saving the world just about designing beautiful things?
It's the easiest thing to think," yeah.
I realized that this may not - this point about empathy may be the greatest thing that
shoes can teach us. You don't have to read the long amount of text. I'll tell you right
now it's more fun to place yourself or put yourselves in the shoes of other people.
You solve more problems. You understand solutions. You have less fights and arguments. Maybe
dates and outings are more enjoyable.
To start to illustrate my point, I have this very interesting story from the past, the
story of DUDUs. I have this good friend, let's call him DUDU and he called me
up one time. That's his real name. He calls me Bubu.
Ah, he calls me up one time and says, "(Boo Boo), Brian, I just got a pair of white pants."
And I'm like, "Wow! That's really interesting." It's like, ahmm, "What kind of pants did you
get?" "Oh, these are like $20, $25 pants." And this was in Manila.
And I said, "You know what? That's really great. That's a really good deal as long as
you don't wear your white pants with black shoes because you're going to look like you're
going to off-you're off to do something else. And besides, the color combination of white
and black is just too severe."
So he thought, "What should I do?" And I, "You know what? Brown shoes, hmm, maybe. But
you know, I think colorful ones or even blue ones will be more interesting."
And that's one - that's when we came up with the colors - with the shoes DUDUs and
that's what they're called.
And then we thought, "You know what? We can make it in a lot of other funny, interesting
colors that remind me of how this friend is to me, DUDU." So I created more colors
and called them like, ahmm, "yellow likey", "gray daze", "Funny olive" and "Purple hickey".
Very interesting colors for shoes.
And then we thought - now I must admit that the illustration in that particular example
was a bit on the superficial. Again, it's just designing beautiful things. We can't
save the world by creating more DUDUs and making a few people have something to
match with their white pants, yeah?
So - but what can we learn from shoes? I think we can understand others better if we place
ourselves in their shoes, if we put more effort in how it is to figure out where they're from,
what they're doing and where they're coming from.
But why us? Why Filipinos? Why shoes and Filipinos? What's up with that? Well, I have another
small story. I was in a cab in Berlin and the cab driver was trying to guess where I
was from, "Are you Japanese? Chinese? Thai?" And I said I was from the Philippines. "Oh,
Filipinos, yeah. Imelda Marcos. How are her shoes? 2000? 3000?"
That's the only thing she remembered and Abu Sayyaf. That's the only thing she remembered
about, you know, that's the only thing he remembered and top of mind when he saw me.
And I thought, "Wow. People remember us for shoes." And guess what? China could make the
most shoes in the world. Italy probably the best made shoes. Japan or Japanese will buy
the most expensive pairs. But you know what? Filipinos buy - oh, sorry, Filipinos love
their shoes the most. No other culture will love shoes more than us, Pinoys.
I come from this town, Marikina. And in the photo are women running in stilettos. It's
what we call "Tour de Takong", "Tour de Takong" in Marikina. And you can understand if you
empathize how difficult it must be to be running a race in stilettos. But this is where I come
from. It's really more fun with shoes in Marikina.
And the we realized - but, you know, if you have very good stories like that about empathy,
how could you empathize with this? In D.C. in 2009, I visited this museum, the Holocaust
Museum. And in one of the halls was this room filled up with shoes, mountain of shoes, from
Holocaust victims.
And when I was there, I realized, ahmm, some pairs were larger than mine. Some were smaller.
Some were pink. Some had ribbons. The smallest ones, I thought, two-year olds, three-year
olds. But these were victims, too. And then I would count them and say, "There's more
small shoes. There are more big shoes. There's more women." And then I felt extremely sad.
But the point is when they talked about it in the Holocaust Museum in this particular
Flickr account, for example, everyone would say the most memorable experience they've
had of the museum, was from that hall of shoes.
So from happiness to sadder moments, we have people empathizing via shoe design, yeah?
On the other side, there's a range of feelings. Shoes can bring you sad ideas but at the same
time can make you feel good. We have a pair here from a very good shoe designer, Filipino
shoe designer, Kermit Tesoro, and this again, this one is for the ladies.
And you'll see how the comments - you'll see - you just have to count the Likes and you'll
realize a lot of people have a lot of stuff to like about shoes. You know what, guess
what? It's the only thing in what you're wearing that does not really change size. If you're
female it gets larger when you're pregnant. But for most people, you gain weight or not,
you lose weight, it's the same pair, yeah?
I was in a table of four just last week and this is a story about shoes again but about
empathy - or about dating. So we come from political of shoes in a pile in a Holocaust
museum to about something romantic.
I was in this table of four and the - and we were discussing about a few days ago and
we were discussing dating and relationships. The question being discussed - and I will
have to read it - was, "How long should two people hang out or date until they become
a couple, get engaged or get married? How long?"
"How long," for the boys, "How long should be going out with this girl from the other
school to know and to feel until maybe we can call ourselves a couple?"
The - but you know, the - the analogy comes from shoes. And I will have to explain it
this way. It should just be like shopping for shoes. You cannot just keep on trying
the same pair over and over. At some point, you will have to make a purchase because you
know what? If you keep on trying the same pair over and over, chances are you will end
up ruining the pair for the next person coming in.
And at the same time, if you don't, that pair gets ruined. Eventually, no one's going to
buy it. It's going to be on sale. Who wants to be on sale as a pair like that? Again,
an analogy about love, shoes and relationships, yeah. You can tell that.
And this slide is for the boys, for the guys and the gentlemen - for the gentlemen in the
audience. Linsanity. But, I don't - I don't have to fit shoes but this guy in that last
conversation was saying, "When I buy my sneakers and rubber shoes, Brian, I don't have to fit
them much while I'm shopping. I don't have to look through them so much. I don't like
shopping and I just buy and then guess what? The shoes fit me eventually."
"I like a design I like, I buy it. It fits me eventually." And I told him, "You know
what you did? You just broke in the pair. That's what you call breaking in. you did
not adjust to the shoe. The shoes adjusted to you." And that's a difference again about
trying out how people are, were they're coming from and about how they think when it comes
to shoes and relationships.
So we have this new world of insight from shoes - from making them, buying them, using
them and loving these pairs. I guess the point here is, ahmm, if we put ourselves in the
shoes of others, there would be less fighting, less arguments and misunderstandings and a
lot of better designs, maybe even national progress and development and even enjoyable
dates.
So to understand ourselves and others, we must learn to put ourselves in other people's
shoes. Where did they come from? Where are they coming from? What are they about? What
about their families? Who are their friends?
The next slide is going to be a very interesting visual. So how does it feel to put yourself
in the shoes of others? Pictured here is a pair by Filipino designer, Joco Comendador.
Very beautiful.
But then I imagined, "How am I going to be walking in a pair like this?" It's heelless
so it works. It's an actual real pair.
Or another one here is by Filipino-German designer, Monica (Figg) and it's called "The
Kiss of the Spiderwoman". It's beautiful, too - all four inches of heels and leather.
But to illustrate my point about empathy, I put together this quick, small, mini (improv)
fashion show. So I pulled out gentlemen from Xavier School to help to show us how it feels
to empathize with women's concerns, with female concerns. So we've asked three gentlemen very
graciously to help us - hold on, just stay there just a minute - I've also asked some
of their friends to help in and guide them as they cross or struggle from the right side
to the left of my stage. Hold on. Is it that terrible, really? Okay. Stay there. It's going
to be fine.
So I've cued the music right now. We have the fashion show, guys, ladies and gentlemen,
"Guys in Heels".
[Music plays]
Even I have not worn heels that high yet. In any case, thank you gentlemen. I may not
have to discuss anymore their experience. You could have seen how they are from their
facial reactions, from their how their faces looks like - look like or how they struggled
from right to left. I couldn't do that myself yet.
But, ahmm, this discussion would seem like it were entirely about shoes. And, ahmm, but
really shoes are only accessories. Accessories are tools for understanding the human condition.
Accessory - these shoes are tools to understand our identity and desires, our dreams as individuals
and as a nation.
So please, in the next few days as you go meet your friends, don't try out their shoes
but you know what I mean. Thank you very much.