Imports threaten artisanal shoemakers in Jordan

He came to be known as “the king of shoes,” but after decades of making footwear for kings, queens and presidents, 90-year-old Jamil Kopti fears cheap imports are killing his craft.

“We started losing customers one after another and lost stores until we closed three stores,” said Kopti, considered the oldest manufacturer of hand shoes in the world. Jordan.

“In the last five years, our profession began to decline dramatically when imported shoes flooded the market,” lamented the shoemaker as he looked at his once thriving workshop.

It now has just five workers, far from the 42 it once employed.

Hundreds of molds collect dust around the workshop in Amman’s popular Al Jofeh district.

After entering the business in 1949, at age 18, Kopti began attending the Bologna and Paris shoe fairs.

In 1961, at a show at the University of Jordan, he met the late King Hussein and presented him with four pairs of handmade shoes.

The monarch became his fan, especially of black formal shoes and “after that, for 35 years, I made the king’s shoes.”

“He loved classic shoes,” Kopti commented, proudly displaying his mobile phone with two old photos of him with the late king.

He received the Jordanian Medal of Independence and was a frequent guest of the palace.

Made in amman

And the fame of Kopti spread. In 1964 the king visited France, where he met with President Charles de Gaulle.

“All the time during the meeting … he had his eyes on my shoes and when he asked me where I got them I answered + they are made in Amman +”, the monarch told Kopti.

“King Hussein asked me to make two pairs of shoes for de Gaulle,” Kopti recalled, noting that “his shoe size was too large.”

According to the Jordan Shoe Manufacturers Association, there were more than 250 shoe factories and workshops in Jordan, with 5,000 workers.

Currently “we have around 100 workshops and less than 500 employees,” said Naser Theyabat, head of the association.

During his long career, Kopti has made shoes for the new King Abdullah II and most of the princes and princesses, as well as political and military leaders.

With imported leathers from France, Italy and Germany, his workshop produced 200 pairs of shoes a day.

Currently there are about 10 pairs, which forced him to produce medical and children’s footwear.

But Kopti believes his loyal clientele will help him survive, pointing to a client he has served for 50 years.

Manufacturers of handmade footwear had a “golden age” in the 1980s and 1990s, Theyabat recalled. But over time, imports grew.

Sultan Allan, head of the Textiles, Clothing and Footwear Union, said that prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Jordan imported 44 million dinars (US $ 62 million) annually of shoes.

Such numbers could have decreased as a result of the pandemic.

“This craft is on the brink of extinction,” admitted Theyabat, lamenting that Jordanian shoemakers receive very little support. “On the contrary, the policy is to flood the market with Chinese shoes,” he added.

Little profit

In the workshop in an old building in the Ashrafiyeh district, three shoemakers sew soles, glue heels and trim leather under the supervision of the owner, Zouhair Shiah.

“The terrible decline began in 2015 when the market was flooded with shoes from China, Vietnam, Syria and Egypt,” said the 71-year-old.

“I had 20 workers and now I have three. We made 60 to 70 pairs of shoes a day, compared to less than 12 today, ”he lamented.

He held up a shoe to indicate that it is “strong and durable” and that the pair costs 20 dinars (US $ 28). “Our profit is very low.”

Shiah expects government support to “lower taxes … because we have debts that we cannot pay.”

Hunched over a leather cutting machine, Youssef Abu Sariya recalled: “I started this 50 years ago. I love this job and I don’t know how to do another one ”.

“What is happening to us is sad, most of the workshops have closed and the workers have left. I’m sure we’ll have the same fate, I just don’t know when, ”he added.