Imports imperil Jordanian makers of handcrafted shoes

"We started losing customers one after another, and we kept losing stores until we closed down three shops," said Kopti, believed to be Jordan's oldest maker of handcrafted shoes.

"In the past five years, our profession began to decline dramatically in face of imported foreign shoes that flooded the market," he sighed, surveying his once prosperous workshop.

Now he has just five workers, a far cry from the 42 staff he used to employ.

And around the workshop in the popular Al-Jofeh district of Amman, hundreds of moulds lie gathering dust.

After entering the trade in 1949 at just 18, Kopti attended shoe fairs every year in Bologna and Paris.

In 1961, at a show at the University of Jordan, he met the late King Hussein and gifted him four pairs of handmade shoes.

Hussein became an instant fan, particularly of black, formal shoes, and "after that, and for 35 years, I made the king's shoes".

"He loved classic shoes," said Kopti, proudly showing off two old photos on his phone of him and the late monarch.

He was awarded Jordan's Independence Medal and was a frequent palace guest on special occasions.

- 'Made in Amman' -

In 1964, the monarch visited France where he met then president Charles de Gaulle.

According to the country's Shoe Manufacturers Association, there used to be over 250 shoe workshops and factories in Jordan, employing about 5,000 people.

During his long career, Kopti has made shoes for the new King Abdullah II and most of Jordan's princes and princesses, as well as top politicians and military officers.

Using imported leather from France, Italy, and Germany, his workshop once made 200 pairs of shoes a day.

Nowadays it is more like 10 pairs, forcing him to turn to medical shoes and children's footwear.

But Kopti believes his loyal customers will help him survive, pointing to one client he has served for 50 years.

Handmade leather shoemakers had a "golden age" in the 1980s and 1990s, recalls Theyabat.