The main industry is shoemaking.
"The prevalent craft around here is shoemaking and clothing, where the working atmosphere is extremely unhealthy," said Ghada Al Rifaee, who works with a non-governmental project in Aleppo called 'Our City.' "Some of the children have become addicted to the glue that they use all day long.
"This was not shoemaking," one wrote.
Unless, that is, you consider sports shoemaking, where China alone has four entries and another that just outgrew the list.
They do work that is considered to be base, like metalworking and shoemaking.
Mr. Russo wouldn't divulge much about what the Saint Laurent shoe line will look like now that it is under his eye, but he was happy to philosophize about shoemaking in general.
A quadrupling of blue-collar wages in the past decade has made China increasingly uncompetitive in areas like garment manufacturing and shoemaking, which are shifting to poorer countries in Asia.
While it is set in a British manufacturing town that has fallen on hard times, the troubles that threaten the family shoemaking business are ultimately solved in a style that lets the show spread sassy song, and probably a few sequins, across the stage.
This weekend the Y is offering ceramic shoemaking and transforming found objects into art.
The basic unit of shoemaking is the last — a sort of mannequin, in the shape of a human foot, upon which the shoe is constructed.
