REVIVING THE ABACA SLIPPER INDUSTRY OF LILIW, LAGUNA
and intricate designs pushes the manufacturers to create more innovative and market-orienteddesign footwear.
Liliw’s Footwear Industry
Figure 1: Breakdown of Sales Values in 2010 (Euromonitor International, 2011)
Figure 2: Breakdown of Sales Volumes in 2010 (Euromonitor International, 2011)
Figure 3: Sales Values of Sub-categories (2005-’10) (Euromonitor International, 2011
The town of Liliw has been existing for almost 400 years, founded by a man named Gat Tayaw, who lends his name to the main street of the town where many of the slipper stores may be found. The town bears the traces of Spanish colonization with wood and stone houses around the stone church at the center of town. A diary of yearly events from the 17th century to the present day also claims that the town was regularly visited by officials of the American colonial government. An early form of slippers made from coconut fiber and local wood, called tsinelas tistis, was also created by a local man – Casiano Pesuena called “the father of slippers. (Arevalo, 2011) Mr. Jundy Arevalo, the tourism officer of Liliw, Laguna, and owner of shoe store Yari sa Liliw, provides data regarding the town’s footwear industry. Tourists fill the streets of Liliw during the holiday season. On a lean day, they receive less than two hundred visitors but, the number of visitors accommodated range between four hundred and five hundred on average. On special occasions such as the Gat Tayaw Festival and holidays, they receive from two thousand to five thousand tourists. The humble town of Liliw houses fortyone footwear stores that also manufacture their products while fifty-eight are just distributors. Classifying by the number of employees, 10 percent of the manufacturers employs twenty-five or more people, 30 percent employs ten to twenty while 60 percent have less than ten. A large percentage of the latter group is made possible by the practice of farming out work to couples in the area. Workers are paid an average of Php 2,000.00 per month or paid on output basis depending on their agreement with the manufacturers. Division of the companies may also be done according to their market. Class A stores sell more than 5,001 pairs of footwear per month, mostly Ateneo Student Business Review March 2012 23