The Slippers
By Trin Torres | December 3, 2025
SoleMate Episode 1 Revisit: Built to Last
SoleMate opens with a hometown tagline.
“Baling saya, baling ganda. Tara na sa Liliw, Laguna.”
It frames a town of craft, rediscovery, and finding what fits. To join us every step of the way is, Ice Neo
(@iceeneoo on TikTok) with impeccable fashion sense, charm, and bold Gen Z personality.
Here, the search for style mirrors the search for life’s right match. And the right pair carries more than design, it carries story.
We meet Marilen Tolentino, owner of Mitz Footwear,
who inherited a family business stitched from leather and abaca, along with years of community trust. Her specialty is leather shoes built from premium materials, clean stitching, hand-cut patterns, and a quality that softens, but never easily breaks.
When the pandemic struck the shops slowed, streets quieted,
material costs climbed, and tourist steps faded.
Still, the craft endured because Liliw footwear lasts.
At Mitz Footwear, they stayed firm through durability over disposability and careful design reinvention for modern wear.
Marilen now runs the business with quiet courage, adapting silhouettes for daily life, grounding designs in comfort, earth-tone palettes and genuine material focus. Episode 1 shows that craft is inheritance, but survival is a choice made each day.
SoleMate doesn’t just display shoes, it elevates makers, memory, and the love for local footwear built to last.
SoleMate Episode 2 Revisit: Woven Grit
SoleMate dives deeper into the souls behind the soles.
Episode 2 features Corazon Coligados of Ai She Footwear. Widely known for shoes shaped by hand, story, and community. We step inside the workshop where pulse meets process.
Their abaca mules and espadrilles carry woven grit.
Each shoe holds a cultural accent sewn by artisans
of Zamboanga and other ethnolinguistic groups.
Making each thread sown into every shoe, unique
and a reflection of their culture.
The episode title, “Im Soul, Sole, Sold!” (Stitching from the Heart), frames every step as earnest and enduring.
Pattern cutting, heel forming, abaca weaving on skin.
Embroidering detail and boxing pieces with pride.
Craft feeds the families of every artisan.
Experienced calloused hands built these soles long before they are sold.
Opening every eye to the earnest craftsmanship of every footwear. May it be Ai She, or from every other footwear store in Liliw.
Later on after giving us a tour of the space,
our host Neo, was given the opportunity to fit themselves for a fresh and unique pair. Courtesy of Ai She footwear.
The sole carries a soul long after it is sold.
And craft survives when given space to be seen.
SoleMate Episode 3 Revisit: Worth the conversation
SoleMate closes its trail at Intramuros, Manila.
Episode 3 rides on something Gen Z Pinoy already knows, the fit check call of Neo, “Ang Sapatos? ___!”
This time, the blank is answered with a whole town, “Ang Sapatos? LILIW!” A statement of
arrival, reintroducing heritage footwear in youth facing spaces,
a direct reply to fast fashion’s louder voice online.
The soles travel to olden Manila’s stones,
where students are interviewed, asked to guess true value of slippers ranging ₱350 to ₱380,
a range unexpectedly lower than mall tags.
Those who guess right earn prizes, slippers Neo personally picked earlier while shopping local deals under a ₱1k budget, finding steals like *3 for ₱120* and *buy 1 take 1*, showing quality does not need heavy price to matter, only the right spotlight to be remembered and chosen.
It also asks a bigger question, is craft worth the
drive, the long road, the curiosity rekindled? By
bringing the footwear to Manila first, and the youth
to Liliw next, the episode proves attention can be
earned, appreciation can be sparked, support can be shared.
What begins as a fit check line folds into
recognition. A belief that Liliw footwear is worth
the long ride, the look back, the conversation.