A shoemaker who makes first lady's shoes

Jun Tae-soo, who made First Lady Kim Jung-sook's shoes, poses in his workplace, JS Shoes Design Lab in Seongsu-dong, Seoul. / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk

By Kim Ji-soo

Korea's autumn sun shone brightly onto JS Shoes Design Lab in Seongsu-dong, carving out one corner on the second floor of a building in this northeastern Seoul neighborhood also known as the "Handmade Shoe District." The shining sun was strong and sweet, and seemingly powerful enough to absorb the smell of industrial glue as the day went by.

"Stay here more than an hour or so and you will soon get a sleepy eye," a senior lab technician joked, when asked if the chemicals get to them in anyway.

The lab belongs to Jun Tae-soo, who is nowadays known more as the man who made first lady Kim Jung-sook's shoes when she visited the United States in July with President Moon Jae-in, his first visit to the American country since taking office in May.

"Our lab is in a much better condition compared to other shoemaking factories," said Jeon, a veteran shoemaker who has spent the past 48 years making handmade shoes. The lab is also a far improved space from the underground factory in Yeomchang-dong, downtown Seoul, where he first worked soon after graduating from elementary school in Hongcheon, Gangwon Province.

Jun's signature design is a women's shoe with an intricately designed toe, similar to a Korean padded sock, and "gomushin" or the rubber shoes often worn with traditional attire "hanbok." Jun first made two pairs of that design for the first lady — one pair with 5-centimeter heels and the other with 8-centimeter heels.

He said he visited the presidential office twice, along with Yu Hong-sik, who has been named by the Seoul Metropolitan Government as Master Craftsperson No. 1 in handmade shoes, to make the first lady's and the President's shoes, respectively. Yu made six pairs for President Moon, and the first couple's mountain-climbing shoes.Yu, who worked in his nearby store, was busy at work on his shoe, but said he felt honored, and all the more honored to see Jun's shoes on the first lady.

"It was an honor, and I lost sleep for several days because I knew the shoes were going to be for the first lady, so I made sure to pour my heart and soul into it," Jun said.

Since designing and making the first lady's shoes, Jun has become even busier.

"There are definitely more requests. In terms of more orders, I estimate that we are seeing about a 10 to 20 percent increase in orders per month," Jun said. It is a good boost for him, who went bankrupt when the 1998 Asian financial crisis hit, then went on to work for other companies before founding the JS Shoes Design Lab in 2014. At the lab, he works with two young interns, who are learning shoemaking skills, and two skilled technicians.

When a customer comes into the lab, Jun first measures their feet and then makes a shoe tree to work from.

"The size is the most important, and then the mantle. As long as you get those two right, you can make comfortable shoes. The problem with the shoes nowadays is that some ignore the standardized shoe tree and focus on the design," Jun said.

After he is done with shaping the shoe tree, his staff cut the leather, and make the upper part of the shoes and then the sole, which pretty much complete the shoes. Then, Jun takes over once again for the finishing touches.

Usually, it takes about a week to make a pair of shoes, or 10 days if the size is large or a client's feet are uniquely shaped.

"I did this to make a living. But I have to say, it makes me feel happy when a shoe turns out well and people tell me it's pretty," he said. Jun, 63, said the first lady recently ordered a few more ahead of her visit to the United Nations in New York.

Jun's father was a blacksmith, and as was customary at the time, he followed in his dad's footsteps. "I started out by doing errands and small stuff, and I slept in the attic. Back then, the master teacher would have low-tier, medium-tier and high-tier apprentices whom he would train and promote as they progress," he said.

He said the work environment was tough, and he was sometimes beaten and then goaded into fights by his seniors. But he said he just kept on working on his shoe technique. These days, he has the interns, but a bank employee and a photographer also come in during the evenings to learn the trade. "The times have changed, and I try to be a mentor to them, because I never had one," he said.

He moved to the Seongsu-dong neighborhood in Seoul in 1978 and worked at various companies, including Fancy Boutique in downtown Myeong-dong, where he honed his forte of creating a fine line, from the toe of the shoe up until the heel.

Some of the keys to his success were the help of his then boss and Jun's deconstruction of a shoe — disassembling a shoe and then studying how it was made from scratch. He then founded his own company, but it went belly-up during the financial crisis.

Business in the Seongsu-dong area has been gradually picking up, owing to the Seoul Metropolitan Government's interest to retain the neighborhood's mainstay economy and the recent public interest from the presidential purchase. The district of Seongdong-gu has also been promoting the shoe district. Jun has also made shoes for top celebrities, such as singer Psy and actress Jun Ji-hyun.

"My shoe philosophy is that shoe is the endpoint of fashion, but the starting point of keeping oneself healthy," he said.

Jun Tae-soo at work with his tools / Korea Times photo by Choi Won-suk