Syiemiong with his high-heeled creation

Shillong, May 6: At Theodore, a nondescript shoe shop in the city’s Barabazar area, shoemaker James Syiemiong makes and breaks records. He also makes shoes.

Syiemiong, who has already entered the Limca Book of Records for making the largest pair of shoes, is now a step away from creating another — for the highest-heeled shoes in the world.

Inspired by his record-winning feat of the largest pair of shoes — 3.71 metres long and 1.13 metres wide — Syiemiong has now made a pair of designer “platform heel boots” — a combination of 43.2 cm platforms and 50.8 cm heels. He is confident that his latest design will “outdo the current record held by a UK-based firm, Ladywear, for an 11-inch platform and 16-inch heel pair.

Syiemiong’s earlier record-winning pair was a modified version of the sandals called WTC (World Trade Center towers) which he had made to pay homage to those killed in the 9/11 strike in the US. “I have sent my claim to the Guinness Book of World Records and they have told me that their researchers are studying it,” Syiemiong said.

The shoemaker, who is “not too concerned about what he gets by selling shoes”, however, has a “strong appetite for records. I want the outside world to know that in this remote part of the globe, we do have talent. All we need is a little exposure and the proper market”, he said.

Syiemiong's creations are unique in that most of them are done without using frames, something which experts in shoemaking say “is very difficult”.

“I spent Rs 61,000 to make the biggest pair of shoes, of which Rs 45,000 had to be paid towards labour cost alone,” said the record-winner, who boasts a collection of craftily-designed cowboy and Barbie shoes — some as small as 2.4 cm and others as big as 3 metres. He said he had to spend almost the same amount to make the high-heeled pair.