Inspired by a bottle of gin, made in Marikina, and built to stand its ground &mdash; Palengke&rsquo;s newest silhouette distills Filipino street culture into a square-toed, strap-customizable statement shoe.

PHOTOGRAPHY Rojan Maguyon
PHOTOGRAPHER'S ASSISTANT Lou Fajardo
In a year dominated by flux and flattening aesthetics, <a href="https://plngke.com/">Palengke</a> offers a stark, square-toed alternative. The Filipino fashion brand has launched Kwatro Kantos, a sharp-edged statement shoe inspired by the humble gin bottle found on countless Manila street corners. With its name pulled straight from the bottle&rsquo;s nickname and its attitude intact, the silhouette joins a growing wave of unapologetically local design&mdash;but not without rewriting the rules.
&ldquo;There&rsquo;s nothing delicate about Kwatro Kantos&mdash;not the gin, not the shoe,&rdquo; says the Palengke team. &ldquo;Both are sharp-edged, unrelenting, and unmistakably local.&rdquo;

And they mean it. The shoe&rsquo;s silhouette is boxy yet balanced: a wide, square toe up front; a round wooden heel at the back. It&rsquo;s a striking juxtaposition &mdash; one that recalls the architecture of Manila&rsquo;s sari-sari stores or a makeshift tambayan repurposed from concrete and charisma. The outer is done in genuine leather, and the soles (sneakily dipped in blue) are a wink to those who notice. Holes along the border encourage wearer interaction, offering multiple ways to style the shoe via interchangeable teal and brown straps, with full compatibility across Palengke&rsquo;s existing Knaur Cube Heels.

If all of this sounds unusually playful, it is. But Palengke isn&rsquo;t your typical design house. Founded by Jillane Santos and Paulina Dayrit, both born and raised in Pampanga, the brand has built a loyal following by quietly reshaping what &ldquo;Filipino fashion&rdquo; can look like &mdash; unafraid of humor, history, or the hyperlocal. Named after the quintessential Filipino marketplace, Palengke turns the familiar into something sculptural. It's not just a brand; it's a love letter to daily life.
Palengke&rsquo;s ethos rests on three interwoven values: Sulit (value through longevity and quality), Kulit (playfulness with purpose), and Gawang Pinoy (pride in local craft). These are more than buzzwords. Each Kwatro Kantos pair is handmade in Marikina, the country&rsquo;s shoe-making capital, by artisans whose decades of skill show in every edge and stitch.

So, what makes Kwatro Kantos distinctly Filipino? It&rsquo;s the refusal to dilute. It&rsquo;s the boldness of making a square-toed, wooden-heeled shoe that references both an alcoholic staple and the geometry of the everyday. It&rsquo;s how the design lets wearers customize to their taste &mdash; much like any street corner sari-sari or neighborhood bench evolves depending on who&rsquo;s gathered. This is a shoe that doesn&rsquo;t translate itself for others. It doesn't have to.
Retailing at ₱9,750, Kwatro Kantos isn&rsquo;t a fleeting trend or a tourist novelty. It&rsquo;s a shoe with roots; hand-cut, culture-first, and unafraid to occupy space. As Palengke puts it: &ldquo;The shoe is designed with the same unapologetic spirit &mdash; square, unshaken, and made with intent.&rdquo;

Palengke’s Kwatro Kantos Is a Tribute to Filipino Street Culture

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Palengke’s Kwatro Kantos Is a Tribute to Filipino Street Culture

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