KARAZAPATOS

Its been months since we featured another notable success story of a Filipino entrepreneur in the person of Ms. Kara de Asis and her famous Karazapatos shoe brand in our Strictly Business segment of our TV Show Business and Leisure (which airs every Tuesdays 10pm over the Home Shopping Network Ch13 on Sky Cable). Well, never is too late when the story you tell is worth sharing, especially to those budding entrepreneurs out there.

Karazapatos is the second shoe maker that I already interviewed. The very first one was ShoeRoom of Ms. Abby Medina. Abby specializes comfy flat shoes which I also shared it here on my previous blogs. When I checked Karazapatos on its Instagram page, instantly, I was amazed with all those photos that I saw. I thought I was directed to a foreign page, but not, those fabulous shoes are truly Filipino made. Her staff are truly accommodating, and after we agreed for the scheduled feature shoot, we visited her at her boutique shop at Marikina.

Ms. Kara de Asis

   

As we entered her store, big shelves full of different styles and designs of shoes greeted us. Shoes, considered as one of girl's best friend, I was so eager to see them one by one and fit all of them, but of course, I have to work first before pleasure. Ms. Kara is pretty and very kind. She briefed me first on how she started Karazapatos before our camera began to roll. Keeping her at ease, she began sharing with us how she started her own shoe line, not only making a noise here in the Philippines, but bringing her brand abroad.

We all know that Marikina is the shoe capital of the country, (at least during its glory days,) before the market was flooded by cheap products from China and other countries, that slowly killed the industry. Kara's family is one of those who has a manufacturing factory in Marikina. When she is still young, she observed how their business work, until she find herself cutting shoe patterns out from paper. When she finally decided to realize her own shoe line, she used materials from their excess at their factory. From there, she produced just a few pairs and posted it in now defunct social media site multiply, and to her surprise, many started to buy her shoes. Her first design then was simple flat shoes with strap, perfect for office attire, and slowly from there, she created different designs that is apt for all season. All that she produced was made available on line, she doesn't have a store yet where customers can go anytime and fit her shoes.

As we tour inside her quaint store, Kara proudly showed to us her shoe collections, from simple flats, to wedges, to stillettos and boots. Still, its hard for me to believe that we can make products that can actually compare to international brands. Some of Kara's customers brought her shoes abroad and later started as re-sellers. Already, Karazapatos made its way to Dubai, Singapore and very recently to Cambodia. Now, more and more people are now getting familiar to her logo. She also shared to us that big part of her market is on customizing shoes, and supplying for those who wanted to name their own shoe brand. Inquiries from their Facebook and Instagram page are also flooded by lots of order. Their factory is very busy to meet all their customers requirement and delivery on time, for their own pair of Karazapatos. Here now are some of their popular and best seller on Karazapatos.

With all those gorgeous shoes, I am sure you won't be satisfy getting only one pair, but rather, will collect all designs for your perfect outfit to all occassions. And yes, I got my own pairs as well. Good luck Ms. Kara and thank you so much for sharing with us your wonderful story.

My own pairs of Karazapatos