Flora Footwear P. Ltd.

If you walk down College Road, you’ll find us at number 29. Flora Footwear P. Ltd. is easy to miss if you aren't looking for the number, as the entrance is a bit hidden behind some overgrown bushes. We’ve been making shoes here for a long time. The workshop is in the back, and that’s where all the real work happens. It’s loud and smells like rubber and cured leather, which is a scent that never really leaves your skin. We have these old wooden benches where the guys sit to do the hand-stitching. It’s not a modern factory by any means. We still use a lot of hand tools that look like they belong in a museum. The office part is just two desks pushed together near the front door. We keep the receipts in these big plastic folders because the digital system we tried to set up kept crashing. Most days, we’re just busy trying to keep up with the local demand. The floor is stained with dye, and there are posters on the wall from ten years ago that nobody has bothered to take down. It’s a simple operation, and we like it that way. We get a lot of students passing by since we’re on College Road, and sometimes they pop in just to see what all the noise is about. We usually just give them a nod and keep working.