M MAG - JUN 2016

STYLE»profile
words AZIMIN SAINI
PUMPED UP KICKS
HOW ONE MAN GREW FROM KAMPONG BOY TO
THE PROUD OWNER OF A SHOE EMPIRE.
As a boy, Tom Ng grew up in a kampong
house – a zinc-roofed structure with a farm
in the depths of forested Mandai. His uncle
raised pigs, his grandfather reared chickens for
eggs to sell at the market and his father owned
a luggage export company. These early years
were simple, and he spent them running around
forests and playing with the farm animals.
This boy would later grow up to be the
owner of Pazzion – a midrange home-grown
shoe empire with eight stores in Singapore
and another 35 franchised outlets around Asia
Pacific. It’s no small feat as competition is rife.
Besides other local shoe brands like Charles &
Keith and Pretty Fit, there are global fashion
juggernauts like Zara and H&M to contend with.
His secret? “It’s hard work. I didn’t even get
married until I was 40.”
From Rags To Riches
This is the story of a village boy making good.
But Ng didn’t start working life wanting to be
a shoe designer – never mind that he showed a
penchant for painting and drawing from as early
as primary school. The family worked hard and
chose the stable route to success. The aim those
days was to put bread on the table and money
in the bank – not superfluous design dreams of
dressing every man and woman’s feet.
By the early ’80s, when Ng was 12, his
family moved out of the kampong and to a
terrace house in the east. He was also sent to
the US to study mechanical engineering, and his
first job was in sales for a construction firm.
The turning point came when he was roped
in at another local shoe company where he
picked up the ins and outs of running a footwear
label. “I was doing everything from designing
to management to retail operations,” he says.
He refrains from disclosing the firm’s name. “It
was a small company and they needed someone
to help manage the business. That’s when we
started developing a new men’s collection.”
But the 46-year-old had always wanted to
be his own boss. After three years of helping to
run the business, Ng withdrew every last cent of
his life’s savings – all $50,000 of it at that time
– and pumped it into Barcode in 2002, his own
men’s shoe label.
“My first shop was at Far East Plaza,” he
says, and the designs were different from what
was available. “The market was mostly full of
men’s work shoes. What I introduced was more
casual, colourful and trendy. There were designs
like sneakers and cowboy-inspired dress shoes.”
These ideas were inspired by trade shows he
attended in Japan and Europe. “At that time, a
lot of people thought that Singaporean men were
not ready yet.”
But he proved them wrong. His designs were
so well-received that the management of Bugis
Junction and Tangs approached him to open
another store or sell his shoes on consignment.
A New Passion
Emboldened by this modest success, Ng
plunged into designing women’s footwear.
“Demand for ladies’ shoes was so much bigger
than men’s,” he says. Then in 2005, Pazzion
was born. The designer in him was let loose
as he revelled in the technical and aesthetic
challenges of designing for women.
“The design process [for men and women]
is similar in terms of moving from idea to
conceptualisation to sample, but ladies shoes
are more dynamic. They are also so much more
complicated, like the heel, the height and the
materials,” he says.
As backend operations were still very lean,
they had to sacrifice Barcode – and it clearly
paid off. While Ng declined to reveal exact
figures, sales have increased tenfold across its
eight local stores since its founding 11 years
ago. Today, Pazzion carries a wide range of
staples from beaded flats, four inch wedges and
even high heels for bridal functions.
Would he consider jump starting another
men’s collection? “That’s always been part of my
plan, but it’s not time yet,” he says.
“I’m very fortunate of where I am now. There
are things that I’m still learning and I’m lucky
that I have a good team that’s supporting this
business.”
Not bad for a kampong boy, we say.
48 JUN 2016