I was born in Querétaro and grew up in León, Mexico, in a Chinese-Mexican family. Heritage, crafts and creativity have always been a very important part of my life; my father is an civil engineer and also passionate about sculpture in wood and bronze, he draws, plays the guitar, my mother loves to sing and all my brothers also play an instrument, draw or compose music.

 

I´m very pround of my origins and the mix of cultures I grew up with. My grand-father was a Chinese immigrant who fled the cultural revolution back then and came to Mexico to start a new life. He married a Mexican women, started a family and worked trading gold throughout the country. I inherited that merchant fiber from him and he has taught me that nothing is impossible, whatever the situation, you have to fight to find a way of life.

 

I love my country and its people, I believe we have so much beautiful craftsmanship and knowledge to offer and sometimes it makes me sad and frustrated to be recognized for producing for foreign compagnies and copying designs. Very few Mexican brands and designers are famous.

 

I wanted to show the world that we are capable of creating beautiful, quality products with unique designs; so I created UNMARKED with one thing in mind: to build a lasting recognizable shoe, uniquely crafted with a contemporary look.

 

I named it “Unmarked” because I wanted the art of craftsmanship above all else, an unbranded shoe that evolves and improves over time, a shoe that one can call by their own name.

 

For 10 years, I have been perfecting the process of goodyearwelted, Stitchdown, Side Wall Stitched, adding new materials, and combining techniques, resulting in pairs that resembles their predecessors and makes people rethink heritage.

 

I made the toe bug embroidery, that fancy stitcthing or medallions that dress up a western boots, the signature of our Brand.

It acts as a signature and can identify Unmarked to others even without the wearer liftin' their cuff.

But it has also a functional use, this is used on certain leathers to help the boot or shoe break over properly.

 

At Unmarked, it's made by hand by our skilled stitcher Raul in the traditional way.

 

Most of this kind of embroidery is made by computer these days, sure it's faster, but we prefer to preserve the artisanal ways that make this kind of work a unique thing. 

The process starts pouring chalk over the vamp to guide the needle, the stitching needs to be very precise and also take care not to erase the chalk with the hand. 

 

 After the embroidery is finished, a thin rope is placed in the back of the embroidery to make a more pronounced surface on the vamp.

 

I decided to use a multicolor stitching as our Signature, each colored thread represents the wonderful color palette of Mexico.

 

Since ancient times, this land has had a love affair with polychromy. It is enough to remember the feather art, the use of the grana cochineal in codices, fabrics, ceramics, murals and temples; the use of masks that cover the faces of those who participate in religious festivals as well as in pagan ones.

Also that peculiar yellow with which the Magical and Yucatecan Town of Izamal was uniformed. And the Mexican pink, purple, brown, royal blue and cobalt that are also present in little houses with roofs, in various towns; than in the architectural work of greats like Luis Barragán.

All this translated into our designs in a single multicolored thread to reaffirm my love for Mexico.