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September 13, 2013

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Home » City specials » Chengdu

Shoemakers walk proudly onto global stage

By Ye Zhen | September 13, 2013, Friday | Print Edition

Well-known for its tongue-numbing cuisine, leisure lifestyle, and pandas, Chengdu, the capital city of Sichuan Province, has also emerged as one of the biggest footwear production centers in China, with a specialty in ladies shoes.

The city now ranks fifth in shoemaking in China and its output of women’s leather shoes accounts for about 7 percent of global production.

Shoemaking has a long history here.

It dates back to the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), when shoemakers clustered on Jiangxi Street in the city’s Wuhou District. The craftsmanship of the shoes endured through the ages and the industry expanded.

In 2005, the Wuhou was designated the “Ladies Shoe Center of China” by the China National Light Industry Council and the China Leather Industry Association.

The district now is home to more than 550 footwear companies, accounting for about 80 percent of Chengdu’s shoemakers, and more than 130 suppliers of raw material and accessories, according to the Wuhou New City Construction Management Committee. About 80,000 people now work in the district, which produces 130 million pairs of shoes per year.

Chengdu officials want to turn this thriving industry into the largest shoemaking center in China as part of efforts to upgrade its light industry as the city evolves into a major commercial hub of western China.

“Chengdu is a vital city in western China with a broad market, excellent human resources and sound industrial base,” said Yan Biao, vice director of the Wuhou New City Construction Management Committee.

“These factors provide opportunities for the Wuhou District to move up the value chain of footwear into design, brand building and marketing,” Yan added.

Currently, there are more than 300 local footwear brands in the district, and shoes produced there are exported to over 100 offshore destinations.

“The most remarkable development in Chengdu’s footwear industry in recent years is the shift of shoemakers toward creating their own independent brands and developing their own sales channels,” said Liu Ying, vice general manager of Cameido Shoes.

Cameido Shoes, established in 1995 in Chengdu as a factory producing shoes for the wholesale market, and an OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) factory for some famous international brands, started to build its own brand ‘Cameido’ in 2001, catering to women aged 25 to 40. Now the shoemaker has nine branches in China and nearly 500 branded shops across the country.

“We have been taking a two-pronged effort to develop our brands domestically and globally,” said Liu. “On the one hand, we are improving our research and development abilities in order to strengthen our foothold in China. At the same time, we have been working with world-famous shoe brands to learn cutting-edge design concepts and modern management system, paving the way for our brand to go global.”

Cameido Shoes has been working with international brands such as Guess, Nine West, and Enzo Angiolini. Under agreements with those brands, Cameido Shoes functions both as a manufacturer and as a designer. The process enables Cameido Shoes to expand its research and development skills.

Another Chengdu shoemaker, Aiminer Leather Products Co, is now exporting its own brands to more than 40 countries.

“We are going from ‘made-in-China’ to ‘create-in-China,’” said Liu Qiongying, chairman of Aiminer.

Since it started in 1996, the company has set up a research and development center in Italy and branches in Germany and Russia. New branches are scheduled to be opened in more Asian and African cities in the next five years.

In 2012, one of Aiminer’s brands won the “China’s Most Potential Luxury Brand” award from the China Luxury Industry Association.

The local government is giving the footwear industry all the help it can.

A 42,000-square-meter exhibition center opened in 2009 in the Wuhou District, giving around 150 shoe manufacturers the opportunity to sell 170 brands directly to the public. 

A new trading center in the district will include a logistics zone, office blocks and a mall for export sales. A training center to attract and cultivate talented shoe designers has also been created.

“We aim to build Chengdu’s footwear industry into a modern industrial system that is characterized by high-end production and international competitiveness,” said Yan. “China’s urbanization process and diversified consumption demands provide great potential for the upgrading of our footwear industry.”

 

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