Pope's pick in loafers is blessing to a cobbler

LEON, MEXICO - When Pope Benedict XVI retired in February, Vatican officials were bombarded with vexing questions, including one that may have seemed oddly trivial: Would he keep the signature red shoes of the papacy?

The simple answer was no. The retiring pope was very happy with the handmade brown loafers given to him during his 2012 visit here, and they would be his chosen footwear in retirement.

Now, Armando Martin Duenas, the third-generation cobbler whose company of 56 workers, Ackerman, made both pairs of shoes, still marvels at the power of the endorsement. His business has grown by nearly 30 percent, and for this gritty city that has been Mexico's shoe and leather capital for 400 years, pride appears to have returned.

"It's strengthened our entire industry," said Mr. Martin, 45. "It shows that Mexico has been doing its homework. Our products are now being accepted around the world."

Not so long ago, this city of 1.2 million in an area of the central plains known for mining, emigration and strong Catholicism was mostly feeling persecuted. About 70 percent of shoes made in Mexico are produced in and around Leon, and at protests in 2008 against the Mexican government's plan to cut tariffs protecting the industry, shoemakers held signs asking the Virgin Mary for protection from China and its cheap imports.

Some sales representatives here still say that Asian producers are hurting business, but the industry overall no longer seems to be in a downward spiral. Even after the tariffs were cut back significantly in 2011, the footwear industry in Guanajuato, the state that includes Leon, has maintained steady growth of about 5 percent a year, according to its shoe manufacturing association. Exports to the United States in particular have grown by double digits, as many familiar American brands have set up operations in the area.

"Irapuato has strawberries, in Toluca they have chorizo, but here in Leon, it's shoes, always shoes," said Jorge Calbillo, 35, a shoemaker at Villalpando Boots.

For Mr. Martin, making shoes for the pope was simply an effort to be cordial and to show Mexico in a different light: not as a country ill with violence and corruption, but as a country of talent, in a craft familiar to denizens of Rome.

The response was limited at first. Then came the news of retirement - and the brown loafers. When they became a public hit, demand soared. Mr. Martin said he got calls and e-mails from all over the world asking to buy the shoes.

Mr. Martin is now studying the shoe size and style of Pope Francis to create the ideal pair for Benedict's successor.

In the meantime, Mr. Martin plans to sell the brown and black versions of Pope Benedict's shoes direct from his company's Web site. His most popular shoes now sell in Mexico for about $230; but for the papal loafers, he appears to be taking it up with God.

The New York Times