9 February 2010 | Paris has a tower and China a wall. Observers note that what Montenegro seems to have a surplus of is shoe stores and that could be good for business.

Shoe stores, shoe stores and more shoe stores. Everywhere you look in the Montenegrin capital, you see shoe stores.

So many, in fact, that Montenegrin tourism officials looking for ways to promote the city may want to consider pitching Podgorica to the world as Shoehalla, a mecca for footwear.

Though locals can be oblivious to their omnipresence, visitors are often baffled by the abundance of retail outlets selling footwear in Podgorica. Why are there so many shoe stores in Podgorica? Southeast European Times was determined to find out.

A quick fact-finding mission through streets close to a Bata outlet confirmed the suspicion that Podgorica is awash in shoe stores. Within ten minutes walking distance from the town square there are three dozen stores selling shoes alone.

There are another 51 shops offering footwear along with clothes and athletic goods. Certainly Podgorica must be one of the most shoe-happy cities in the world. Beyond the city core, the puzzling density of footwear boutiques persists.

Though dozens of shoe shoppers and shoe store workers were asked, no one was able to account for the confounding number of shoe stores.

Perhaps playing coy, Bata Manager Dragan Pajkovic said with a straight face: "I don't think there are so many shoes stores in Podgorica."

Really?

In the face of such evidence?

A visit to Astra Shoes -- owned for the past decade by Dusan Soc, 50 -- brought some clarity.

Soc said that when he bought the store, "Shoes were one of the few commodities that shop owners could get in abundance on credit."

International trade sanctions leveled against Serbia in 1992 meant there was no export market available for footwear manufacturers. In that atmosphere, shoe stores began to spring up all over Podgorica to move product.

Soc gets most of his shoes from Novi Pazar in southwest Serbia, a city which he said is home to "more than 350 shoe manufacturers". He believes that most of his competitors also get their stock from Novi Pazar but says few will admit it, preferring to pass off their wares as the handicraft of Italian designers.

Though the tsunami of cheap Chinese shoes washed across the West, it has yet to break on Montenegrin shores, according to Soc.

"We can get better shoes from Serbia at the same or better prices," he said.

If the global recession does not end soon, said Soc, it could wipe out many of his competitors. But he is confident of enduring, sure that he will retire and pass on his 25sq m shop to his children.

"My customers have been shopping here for 40 years and they will do so for another 40 years."

*This text is courtesy of the Southeast European Times (SET), a web site sponsored by the US Department of Defense in support of UN Resolution 1244, designed to provide an international audience with a portal to a broad range of information about Southeastern Europe. It highlights movement toward greater regional stability and steps governments take toward integration into European institutions. SET also focuses on developments that hinder both terrorist activity and support for terrorism in the region.

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