Event showcases Fujian's shoemaking skills

More than 500 companies from about 70 countries including the United States, Germany and Japan participated in the Jinjiang Footwear International Exposition in Southeast China's Fujian province from April 18 to 21.

Jointly sponsored by the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade and the China National Light Industry Council, the event in its namesake city Jinjiang covers 50,000 square meters and hosts 1,700 exhibition booths.

Exhibits range from shoes and other footwear items to bags and even publications covering the sector.

The exhibition has three sections for shoe products, shoe machinery and other technology.

A highlight of this year's event, the industry technology area shows visitors the design process of new products from top brands.

Innovative materials on display also show how advanced technology makes products with better traction, comfort and safety.

For the 10th consecutive year, a pavilion has been dedicated to Taiwan shoemaking companies, and companies from the island have taken up 80 booths at this year's event, a record number in the footwear expo's 17-year history.

Ding Feng, deputy mayor of Jinjiang, said the expo serves as an important platform for shoemaking companies to facilitate exchanges and deepen cooperation across the Straits.

Famed as the country's "footwear capital", Jinjiang is home to companies that make 20 percent of the sports shoes sold globally and supply 40 percent of the domestic market.

The success story has its roots in small family-run workshops that produced cheap sandals and slippers in the early 1980s.

Over the next two decades, the sector grew into an economic pillar of the city. Today more than 2,000 factories churn out 1.57 billion pairs of sports shoes a year.

In the city's small towns of Chendi, Chidian and Xiyuan, shoemaking is a major source of income for locals.

A complete industrial chain has sharpened the city's competitive edge, with all the materials needed for making a pair of shoes available within its boundaries.

Jinjiang also has a street with hundreds of stores selling textiles, accessories and plastics used to make shoes.

At the end of the street, a sprawling mall is home to wholesale businesses, while both large and small shoemaking factories are just a few miles away.

With a population of more than two million, the 721-square-kilometer city is home to 3,000 footwear companies with a combined 250,000 employees.

Today the footwear capital has a group of local brands that have grown into top national names, including Anta, Xtep and 361.

A pioneer in brand building, Anta invited world table tennis champion Kong Linghui to endorse its products in 1999.

The bold marketing campaign soon made the brand famous nationwide. Other companies followed suit with celebrity endorsements. They too became nationally known.

A number of Jinjiang shoe companies spent heavily in China Central Television's auction for primetime advertising slots in 2009.

The 361 brand became the sole sportswear supplier for the CCTV sports channel with a 158 million yuan ($25.5 million) bid, while Xtep bid 156 million yuan to be the sole partner during live broadcasts of sports events.

With ads from more than 10 Jinjiang-based brands airing at the same time on CCTV, the sports channel was nicknamed the "Jinjiang channel".

In recent years, the companies began bringing their brands onto the global stage.

In 2011, Jinjiang-based Septwolves bought Kenna Hangzhou, an international agency for luxury goods in China, while Anta acquired Belle International's Fila sportswear franchises for 357.7 million yuan in 2009.

The addition partly contributed to Anta's income of 8.9 billion yuan in 2011, a rise of 20.2 percent despite the global economic slowdown.

To date, 44 companies from the city have been listed on the domestic or international stock markets and half of those listed companies are shoemaking firms.

Following the theme of this year's expo, Jinjiang's shoemakers have paid increasing attention to innovation and creativity to enhance their business performance in both domestic and global markets.

In 2005, Anta invested 20 million yuan to start the Sport Science Lab research and development institute.

Among its innovations is a technique to record and simulate the movement of athletes' feet, enabling the development of footwear suited to their dynamics.

The company established an 8,000-square-meter national technology center in 2009. Its R&D expenditure now exceeds 3 percent of its annual revenue.

In 2007, the Sports Equipment Research and Development Center, part of the China Institute of Sport Science, opened at Jinjiang's Fujian Sidelong Sporting Goods Co.

Chen Rongfa, Party chief of Jinjiang, said the expo aims to provide an authoritative analysis of the macro trends that will influence future developments of the shoemaking industry and consumer behavior.

The event is not only a venue for sourcing, buying and networking in the international footwear industry, but also provides opportunities for celebrating the technological innovation and boosting exchanges in the sector, Chen said.

Contact the writers at sunli@chinadaily.com.cn

(China Daily 04/20/2015 page18)