A self-taught shoemaker has honed his craft from meager beginnings to fashioning some of the finest leather shoes in the world, from his workshop in Saigon, Vietnam. Learning the trade in humbling circumstances in the 1940s, Trinh Ngoc, now 89, went on to craft footwear that became sought after by the likes of kings and world leaders. His shoemaking journey started at an early age in 1947, when Trinh’s brother apprenticed in making suitcases; near where he worked, there was a shoemaking workshop that Trinh used to visit frequently. “I found it really interesting, and I was interested in learning it because shoemaking is really diverse,” Trinh told The Epoch Times. He would watch the shoemakers practicing their craft and learned from them—though their shoemaking skills were considered inferior by European standards. “Fortunately in 1950, my family moved to Phnom Penh and opened a shoe shop in a new French town,” …