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Creativity and Culture: Interview with Sheryll Quiming-Gempis


The Alpha Stories (TAS): Tell us the story of your company and why you started it?

Sheryll: I have always been a ‘head-over-heels shoelover’. But my fondness with shoes usually culminates in shopping for the usual pair in our local shopping malls. However, in one of our family trips to Ilocos provinces, I discovered Abel Iloko. I was surprised that in an age of technology and mass production, there is a dying tradition of textile production using the two pedal foot loom. I researched further on this tradition of local weavers creating exquisite, indigenous fabrics in Bangar, La Union; La Paz, Abra; Caoayan, Ilocos Sur, Paoay, Ilocos Norte, and especially the the Binakul fabrics from Sarrat, Ilocos Norte, which is a pattern made of circles of squares and rectangles producing a stunning, visual illusions.

When I was a sociology major in college from UP-Diliman, I had always aspired to work in advocating Filipino culture and identity. So I was inspired to be creative and passionate about this cultural artifact. I was hoping I could fuse this new found passion with my love for shoes.

Then I started to talk with skilled shoe artisans from Marikina City and Liliw, Laguna about the possibility of using these indigenous fabrics. In the beginning I was skeptical and I had reservations about the final designs but then I found undaunted partners who were willing to use these materials for modern, fashionable shoes.

Then, Shoes by Kai was born.

TAS: Tell me more about SbK or Shoes by Kai and how is it different from everybody else.

Sheryll: Shoes by Kai is not mainly a business enterprise. It is an advocacy for the promotion and preservation of local culture, by producing beautiful, wearable, and durable pairs carrying the colors and intricate patterns from local weaving traditions. It aims to encourage younger generation of weavers to learn and continue these traditional forms of textile production for inculturation into contemporary use and fashion. It also aims to revive the dying shoe industry that has long been overtaken by the influx of mass produced footwear, by promoting artisanal, handcrafted shoemaking.

SbK hopes to instill in Filipino buyers the appreciation and motivation to support, nurture, protect and preserve indigenous traditions and materials in handweaving and shoemaking. With so many threads, colors and shades that could be turned into trendy textiles, there will be more durable, chic and comfortable footwear to be designed.

TAS: In three words, what is SbK all about?

Sheryll: The three Cs of SbK is CULTURE, CREATIVITY and CRAFTMANSHIP. To put it all together requires passion, sensitivity, unceasing research, and unending quest for improvement.

TAS: Sheryll, I am curious about your thoughts on having an impact to the community? Tell us how SbK get into the heart of the community?

Sheryll: I think, having an advocacy to make a difference in the lives of people and communities where the enterprise came from is definitely important in creating a level of impact in the community. I truly believe that every business does not sprout from a vacuum. No enterprise can be said to be completely original. The most important part is not the financial capital but the human capital that gave life and inspiration to the business idea itself. So early on, our business objective is truly not for profit alone but the desire to give back to the people and communities where our business originally belongs. We have to acknowledge that without the weavers and the shoemakers, this venture will not even get a jumpstart. Since they inspired me to get into this business, I needed to somehow maintain a level of organizational and community impact by inspiring them as well as nurturing them and providing them motivation to continue their craft.

TAS: What are the 5 key strategies that help you become an industry leader?

Sheryll: I think that would include the following:

One: Having an advocacy. Working on for goals bigger than myself and the business.

Two: Pursuing social entrepreneurship. Helping nurture and sustain people and communities, which are the foundation of the business.

Three: Innovating. It is about innovation, innovation, innovation. Always pursuing on creativity and designs, then pushing the innovation into mainstream.

Four: Promoting synergy. Getting and sharing the best skills and ideas from all stakeholders for the good of all.

Five: A commitment to continuously strive for improvement, quality and excellence.

TAS: What was your most inspiring moment doing what you do?

Sheryll: Receiving positive feedback from satisfied clientele. I never deliberately asked for feedbacks from clients, but it has become a regular thing for my buyers to send their pictures proudly wearing SbK and even sending messages like they already have 15 pairs of my shoes or that they have travelled to different countries using only SbK, etc. These pictures and messages inspire and strengthen my motivation to keep up.

I have met and was endorsed by Ms. Jessica Zafra, who happens to be my favorite local writer. I have been invited to exclusive pop-up stores that feature the “choicest” brands in Manila. I was named by one blogger as among the “Four up and coming Filipino shoe brands to watch out for”. I was featured in several local magazines. But nothing beats the incident when my daughter Kai, whom SbK was named after, saw the crowd in our booth in a Rockwell bazaar and exclaims, “Gosh, you’re doing well, Mama! I’m so proud of you.”

TAS: That is great – I can definitely relate to having the best compliment from your own child! It is pure joy. So, with all of these accolades and recognition that you have received in the Philippines shoe industry would you consider yourself a success?

Sheryll: At this point, I still consider myself miles away from being a real ‘success’. The business is still in its birth pangs and I need to work harder to discover the formula for its sustainability. I have also started using other fabrics from Bicol and Mindanao but I am still looking forward to using other indigenous fabrics all over the country.

But in so far as I am able to convince the local weavers and shoemakers to keep up their good work and as long as there are buyers who remain captivated with SbK pairs and prods them to “wear their culture”, then SbK shall continue to seek a niche in the shoe industry.

TAS: Do you have any success habits?

Sheryll: Passion, focus, direction, and sensitivity to others.

TAS: Tell us, how do you start your day?

Sheryll: I start my day with a prayer. It’s not everything that we can do but it’s the only thing we can in our hope but for a better, compassionate world.

TAS: What makes you happy? Do you think being happy is critical in being successful?

Sheryll: When people around me are happy. Happiness is the be all and end all goal. There is no use in being successful when you are unhappy So strive to be happy, which is not necessarily about being successful.

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