Wenling Shoe Making: The Wealth Of "Walking"

The vicissitude of a poor little village is a common village in Hengfeng Town, Wenling. The local population is 1200, but the floating population has reached 3000 people. The more than 40 local shoe factories have become "warm homes" for these migrant workers. "More than ten years ago, our village was still a poor village that lived by fishing and weaving straw sandals. Looking at it now, it's hard to imagine that shoemaking will bring about such a big change to our village. When talking about the great changes in the village in recent ten years, Chen Genfu still regrets unceasingly. Chen Genfu is the Secretary of Hengfeng Wei Chen Village, and is also the boss of "Canglong shoe industry". Chen Genfu said that more than ten years ago, Guan Wei Chen village was still a poor village, and villagers only lived by catching some river fish and weaving straw sandals. Gradually, the poor days made the young people in the village unable to sit still, thinking of finding a better life outside. They came to Wenzhou, and in the "shoes city of China", Wenzhou, the shoe factories everywhere gave them great inspiration. After working for the shoe industry in Wenzhou for some time, the young Wenling people are not satisfied with their meager income for working for others. Their minds are beginning to think this way: "since they have learned their skills, why don't they run factories and become bosses?" Those who came back from the outside world tried to start their own businesses after bringing back technology and experience. Soon, family workshops jointly organized by family members began to take root in the locals. Because the technology content of shoemaking is not high and easy to handle, the investment is small and the profit is large. Other villagers have also been able to see how profitable they are, and the footwear industry is spreading around the country. The emergence of small family workshops allowed villagers to lay down their nets and straw sandals and found a new job. "Now the young people in the village are no longer intent on running outside. As soon as they finish school, they go home to run the shoemaking industry, and do not have to worry about losing their jobs or finding jobs. Chen Genfu's nephew Chen Haixing said. After graduating from college this year, Chen Haixing immediately joined the ranks of the shoemaking army. With the passage of time and capital accumulation, small workshops are constantly expanding, factories are transformed into factories, and even transformed into companies and groups. The more than 1000 local labor force in the village is far from meeting the current demand. Those migrant workers who are pouring in from other provinces just fill in this gap. Chen Genfu said that nowadays, the villagers of Wan Wei Chen Cun have not only become bosses themselves, but also the expansion and development of shoemaking factories have provided jobs for a large number of migrant workers, so that they can make money and have food to eat. The role of the old farmer changed. "I intend to accompany my friends to buy a Mercedes Benz this afternoon." "Well, how much is it?" "No, it's too good. It's OK to buy 600 thousand yuan or so." Such a dialogue surprised the reporters. In the face of reporters' questions, Chen Genfu smiled. "The development of shoemaking industry has brought great benefits to our village, and the living standards of the villagers have undergone tremendous changes." Chen Genfu showed some old photos to reporters. The houses on the photos were all built up in a big house with slate, which was broken and rotten. Occasionally, a three story building could be built on the tall buildings at that time. Nowadays, it is hard to find such a "antique" house in the village. Looking at it, the buildings are full of new buildings. Many rich villagers own a whole house of their own. Many people will also transform the entire house into a factory building, working and living two. Many years ago, when the first car entered the village of Wei Chen, people rushed out to see something new. Many people had never seen such a vehicle. Nowadays, Wan Wei Chen village people have become accustomed to taking the car instead of walking. And basically, there are several cars in every household. The goods cars are all in a complete range. It is very convenient to transport goods by lorry and go out to use cars. After the rapid development of shoemaking industry, some industries that surround it are coming. Leather industry and shoe sole processing industry are all survival and development because of shoemaking. In the past, shoes, leather and soles were ordered to go to Wenzhou. The cycle was long and the cost was high. Nowadays, it is much easier to get all the raw materials needed for shoemaking at home, and it also saves a lot of unnecessary transportation expenses. In the next year, it can save a lot of money for the big and small bosses. Now Guan Wei village has a complete set of industrial chains. They are no longer satisfied with the domestic market, and sell their products to overseas through the platform of some commercial fairs. When reporters went to interview, many bosses rushed to Guangzhou to attend the Canton Fair. In the past, "two ears do not hear about village affairs, and only one who has straw sandals", the village of Guan Wei now pays close attention to the dynamic trend of external commerce and seeks for the best opportunity to create greater profits. In fact, there are many shoe making villages like Guan Wei Chen Cun in Hengfeng, and there are many shoemaking towns like Hengfeng town in Wenling. Although their business models have their own advantages, their ultimate goal is the same. That is to get rich and promote the whole city. Even more gratifying is that many owners have realized the importance of brand building, they will create brand shoes as their goal. Looking for the shoe making industry, the rise of shoe making industry has indeed made Wenling "blood activating and dredging collaterals". "The shoe factory in the city is full of shoes", and all the people in the street are all big and small owners. In the local people's own words, "if there is no shoe making industry, Wenling may still be a small village hall." According to statistics, from 1995 to 2005, the output value of shoemaking in Wenling increased from 2 billion yuan to 14 billion 800 million yuan, with an annual growth rate of over 15%. In the year 2005, the Wenling footwear industry's 14 billion 800 million yuan profit accounted for 1/5 of the local industrial output value, 350 million pairs of shoes exported, exports amounted to 430 million 520 thousand US dollars, accounted for nearly half of Wenling's total exports, and became a local pillar industry. However, the rapid development of the footwear industry in Wenling is like an adolescent with poor nutrition. Wenling's shoemaking system is a medium and low-grade shoe, which has been unable to break through the vicious circle of "low price, low price and low profit". It has gone through the imitation and cloning Road: changing "Adidas" to "adadis", transforming the leopard on PUMA shoe into a cat, specializing in playing the edge ball and bullying people with bad eyes. In the course of the interview, reporters found that many owners sneered at the practice of completely copying the famous brand shoes, but they talked about the way of playing the edge ball. They thought that this could meet the requirements of some customers who didn't buy the nameplate shoes, and hold the idea that although they earn little money for each pair of shoes, but they can make money quickly, they should be satisfied with the reality in the face of low profit reality. The poor quality of shoes has also become a malignant tumor on the chest of Wenling footwear industry, which affects the survival and development of the local footwear industry. In November 2004, the inspection results of Taizhou Quality Supervision Bureau showed that only 132 batches of products were tested in 132 enterprises in Wenling North Street, only 30 batches were qualified, the pass rate was 22.7%, while the qualified rate of 65 batches of 65 enterprises in Chengdong street was only 15.4%, and only 10 batches of shoes were barely qualified. This kind of "short shoes" and "unsuitable" rough production make many customers talk about the color change of shoes, holding feet full of blisters and refusing to wear Wenling shoes. Wang Lihui, Deputy Secretary General of Wenling shoe leather industry association, told reporters: "the quality of Wenling shoes is the key to the development of Wenling's footwear industry." Wang Lihui said, in fact, the neighbouring cities of Wenzhou and Wenling are quite similar now, but the footwear industry in Wenzhou has successfully shifted from counterfeit and inferior pronoun to the formulation of the national standard for leather shoes. During the more than 10 years, the footwear industry in Wenzhou completed the transformation from ugly duckling to geese in the daytime, and Wenzhou leather shoes have now taken the lead in the whole country. "There is still a disorderly competition in the footwear industry in Wenling. Today, many enterprises have tasted the bitter fruit brought about by disorderly competition, and then such internal friction will go on, overdraw tomorrow's market and waste resources, and the footwear industry in Wenling will struggle in the process of cannibalism." Wang Lihui said. To get out of the "Castle" and thoroughly solve the problem of "Besieged City", we must take the three step of "chess": talent, innovation and market. Among them, innovation is an urgent problem facing the footwear industry in Wenling. In recent years, Wenling's traditional injection shoes are facing challenges. Although the cold sticky shoes continue to grow rapidly, due to the lack of innovation, they are far behind the pace of Wenzhou shoes in terms of technology and sales. Therefore, it is the only way out for Wenling shoe making industry to make innovations. The industrious and intelligent Wenling people start from scratch, and rely on taking care of the foot business of the whole country and even the whole world, shoes have embarked on a road to riches. The footwear industry in Wenling started in the late 70s of last century. It mainly concentrated in towns, streets, and cities such as Ze, Hengfeng, Dashi, Chengdong, Chengbei and Wen. At present, there are nearly 5000 registered enterprises, with 166 thousand employees and more than 700 million annual output. The products are exported to more than 140 countries and regions, and become one of the largest injection molding and injection production bases in the world.