Cigarettes, lush leather and a hearty laugh; Mang Fernando Lopez is your next door shoemaker from the heart of Marikina City. The man is more popularly known as Mang Pando crafting quality footwear for 4 decades, ever since the day his father handed him the tools when he was ten.

Growing up in an extensive family of 5 brothers & 5 sisters at the height of the generation of the baby boomers, only Mang Pando and his sister chose the life of shoemaking; it was indeed an outcome of pursuing the calling no matter how unconventional it may be. For him, the shoes are a pair of objects beyond just being shoes.

Albeit not a stranger to the highlights reel of a flourishing shoe business (includes a growing clientele of loyal customers, recommendations through facebook pages, name recognition in the Marikina Shoe scene and the like), like every craft, it has its demands.

Mang Pando is an avid worker of the graveyard shift, especially at peak season; he goes off to the chair at 7 am and continues on beating leather and soles until the next morning at dawn, but money only runs at the 12 hour mark; the dusk is driven by the passion to create, by the passion to complete a pair that will bring purpose and aid to those who need good shoes for a journey - the traveler, the wanderer, the adventure seeking and all those who choose to live life by their own paces.

To him and his sister, who are now owners of the shoe supply store entrusted to them by their father, quality cannot ever be compensated. Price is one matter, but the durability of a pair that is about to grace the feet of those who just simply choose to go, is a life commitment the shoemaker must stay true to.

Often overlooked and seemingly a mindless detail of everyday living, we put on our shoes as the last thing before we step out on our doors. We make sure the pair is suitable enough for the day's agenda, enough to embark on our individual journeys.

We find ourselves a little dysfunctional when we put on the wrong pair, our footwork slowing down, our pace and drive slowing down. At this light, we forget that a good pair of shoes lasts you in the long run, in the long journey, in the finish line.

And at the end of it all, whether its curtain call or an intermission, we find ourselves removing the pair, as a manner of respect to the ground we are walking upon - more often than not, a place we see as a sanctuary that must remain untouched.

We begin to feel our soles swelling, yet our souls being fed from the day's work. And in Mang Pando's daily duty as a shoemaker, being the man behind everyone else's journey, it is a fulfillment that drives him from sunrise to sunrise, crafting a well-made pair to pair every single day.

A few hits from menthol sticks and endless swipes from the forehead dripping with hard-earned sweat, Mang Pando has not walked the mile, yet he has gone many places. But through the passion flowing out from his calloused hands, he has made hundreds of pairs that amount to the distance and experience his patrons go for. His craft served as the travelers' luck, whether on rocky terrains or urban grounds. Fernando Lopez has made the travelers, the wanderers and the adventurers a little more driven and little more seeking, one quality pair at a time.