Staff Writer – Latoya Wakefield
Community news. He started working from age 13 with his mother and brother; their trade making footwear. Cyril didn’t like shoe – making but he knew no other trade and had no alternatives. It was family tradition so Cyril had to do it. Auto Mechanics was Cyril’s true passion but the family trade was his bread and butter so he could not entertain any other dreams. He and all his brothers took part in the trade. Young Cyril started off with stitching on a Singer Machine. They made slippers for males and females.
They got leather at Hanna on South Camp Road. They had to be there on Mondays by 6 am or else they would get no goods as the other shoemakers would buy all the material before 7 am. They normally bought a week’s worth. One footwear they used to make a lot was called Marcus – an uppers stitched with white thread. They would make their goods, give the retailers on commission on Thursday where those retailers would sell in several parishes and on Sunday, they would collect payment.
A shoemaker’s life was not easy, people took goods and did not pay on collection day. It was a struggle but a means of survival nonetheless. And according to Cyril, they had to accept whosever wanted the goods as it wasn’t easy getting the goods trusted in the first place; Cyril stated “dem mek it seem like yuh have to kiss dem asses to get dem to tek yuh goods” … Cyril paused for a bit and shook his head and said “it nuh easy at all”. He then continued to say that even if they got payment on collection day it was hardly in full. Cyril shook his head again. Cyril reflected on his true passion, auto mechanics. He then stated that in those days, parents didn’t care or could afford their children’s interests.
He never once mentioned to his dad that he wanted to be a mechanic. He did his family trade without ever revealing his dislike for it. Eventually as he got older, he developed an admiration for the trade; especially when he went independent and made his own goods. He would make his way from the inner city of Kingston to the busy market streets of May Pen. He had to get up early in the morning to make it there to set-up shop. Normally he made good sales and met great people. Life was good for Cyril in the 70s and 80s until the 90s when the Chinese-made footwear flooded the market.
Jamaicans no longer wanted the local stuff. They wanted foreign goods that were cheaper, more stylish, had variety though it was not durable. Not many people evaluated the strength of footwear. It was a case of style over quality. When one of Cyril’s slippers lasted for years, one of the Chinese slippers lasted a few months. The local footwear industry tanked and what strengthened was the footwear repairs industry. What Cyril and many other shoemakers lost in footwear making, they made up for in repairs.
Recently, a window of opportunity opened for Cyril when a type of slippers that had to be made manually came into style, called Reese’s Pieces. A leather based slippers where the straps were cut from cloth to twine around your legs like vines. Cyril made numerous sales and people didn’t mind paying the price for it. Cyril commented it’s first since making footwear, it was so successful. People ambushed him to make one of the Reese’s slippers, kids, females and boyfriends who wanted their spouses to wear what was in style. People particularly sorted Cyril because he took pride in his work and was particularly neat in how he made slippers.
Now the Christmas season passed and it’s quiet time again. Even though Cyril is back to mainly doing repairs, the Christmas season sales restored his hope in the local footwear making. Maybe one day, the industry will boom. After all it is a new year and with it comes new opportunities…
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