For decades, shoemaking companies in China have followed time-tested methods of making a living in global markets: meeting clients at their factories to arrange order details, showcasing their products at the China Import and Export Fair (Canton Fair), and increasing spending on cross-border e-commerce platforms to promote sales. But after the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, many foreign clients were unable to travel overseas, so Zhu Henglin, who heads business operations at Juyi Group Co, a shoe manufacturer in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, and his colleagues have adopted 3D printing equipment to work out details with their international clients.
The Chinese company and its foreign clients each make samples of shoe designs with 3D printers and then discuss and modify the details via online video, which greatly saves time and costs for both. “Thanks to this, we no longer need to send shoe samples to clients in developed markets and worry about shipment delays,” said Zhu, who added that many shoemaking companies in Wenzhou have production orders lined up until the end of the year. Driven by surging demand in overseas markets, especially in the rebounding tourism and sports sectors, China’s footwear product exports soared 31.4% year-on-year to CNY173.7 billion in the first half, according to the General Administration of Customs (GAC).
Gold Emperor Group, another Wenzhou footwear manufacturer, recently installed two sets of new equipment to apply glue to the uppers and soles of shoes in one of its factories in Wenzhou. With the new equipment in place, the output capacity of each production line has been set at 250 pairs per hour, doubling the output. Footwear is traditionally a labor-intensive industry, and it remains difficult to completely standardize automation. However, in some phases of production, replacing workers with machines boosts production capacity, said company President Zhu Jianfeng. “The reason we dared to invest such a large sum of capital in fixed assets at one time is mainly because of the substantial increase in export orders, which has boosted our confidence. In addition, the international markets’ orders for athletic shoes have remained strong in recent months,” Zhu said. He added that the company is expected to export 12 million pairs of sports shoes this year.
Chen Wenzhao, Director of Business Development at Gold Emperor Group, said that challenges and opportunities coexist for China’s shoemaking industry this year. Aside from footwear products, items such as soles, uppers, eyelets, buckles and laces sold well in Southeast Asian countries. He said all the parts and accessories needed in the shoemaking process can be found and bought in Wenzhou. Supported by more than 11,000 employees in manufacturing bas- es in Jiangxi, Henan and Hubei provinces, as well as in Myanmar, the value of the company’s exports of semi-finished products and other materials to Myanmar surged from CNY8.45 million in 2021 to CNY95 million in the first half of 2022.
In Fujian province, another shoemaking base in China, Wu Jiang, an official at the Haicang branch of Xiamen Customs, said companies in Xiamen and surrounding cities exported CNY2.6 billion worth of shoemaking materials to Vietnam, Indonesia and Cambodia between January and June, up 40% year-on-year.
