China'S Leather Industry Design "Short Legs" Become A Stumbling Block For Development

According to statistics of the National Bureau of statistics, China's leather processing trade has dropped sharply in the first half of this year.

The leather industry based on processing trade has lost its cost advantage in the past.

With the increasing number of technical barriers to trade in the European Union and other countries and regions, the design of "short legs" has become a stumbling block in the development of the industry.

Faced with the current situation, the leather industry has no choice.

Recently, by the Zhejiang Leather Industry Association, the "Yiming Cup" luggage, leather goods and footwear Grand Prix, jointly organized by the Yiwu Economic Development Council and relevant enterprises, were announced.

This annual important platform for talented designers in the leather industry of Zhejiang province has not only recruited talented people for many enterprises, but also applied many creative designs to speed up the overall technological innovation of the industry.

At present, China's leather industry has unique and hi-tech creative designs, and the industrialization of these designs has made leather enterprises relying solely on OEM trade expect energy to be reactivated.

The reporter learned from the Zhejiang leather industry association that in Zhejiang, Wenzhou, where the domestic leather industry developed rapidly, more than 70 shoe making enterprises have gone bankrupt this year.

Because in the past quite a long period of time, the export business of the footwear industry in Wenzhou was mostly processed trade, among which imitation, sample processing, duplication and imitation were the main ones.

Some enterprises with technical strength will be improved according to the customer's requirements after the samples are arrived, and the customers will make the order after the confirmation.

Few enterprises actively promote their products to the international market through professional design.

In recent years, the profits of leather industry have been squeezed again and again as many countries have implemented anti-dumping duties on China's shoes.

In the initial stage of capital accumulation, technology accumulation and management experience accumulation, vigorously developing "three to one supplement" processing trade is a shortcut for the domestic leather industry to expand rapidly.

However, today, with the creativity and design becoming the global competitive weapon, the competitive advantage of the domestic leather industry is losing day by day.

The head of a shoe processing enterprise in Wenzhou calculated to reporters that a pair of leather shoes originally sold for 5 US dollars could be exchanged for more than 40 yuan, of which the profit was 4 yuan. After the RMB against the US dollar fell below 7 yuan, it could only sell 35 yuan, and the profit of 4 yuan was gone.

Because of this, many enterprises will not close now or give up processing trade.

However, in Italy, which is also famous for shoemaking, the average export price of footwear industry is 27.94 euro / double, of which leather shoes are 35.16 euros / pairs, synthetic leather shoes are 12 euro / double.

Focusing on independent design, combining high technology with manufacturing technology and applying it to products is the key to the success of Italy shoe industry.

Mo Hanyi, director general of the world leather chemical association, told reporters that leather products must focus on product design if they want to enter the international market. The innovation of products is the focus of competition, and they can not just pursue the style of other countries' brands.

In recent years, domestic leather enterprises have gradually realized that design is an important source of value for products and a sharp weapon for price competition.

This has made the domestic leather industry embark on the road of innovation relying on design and product profit, and through the design Grand Prix, it has become a shortcut for many enterprises to recruit talents and get creative design.

The Hengda Group has gained a lot in this regard.

The product of Dan Cunli, general manager of the company, was awarded the first prize of women's shoes and women's boots in the "leather logo Cup" national leather shoes design competition. The technical center employees were awarded the first second skills competition of leather shoes sewing workers in Shandong Province, and the 4 products were awarded the one or two prize of the 2006 leather logo cup national leather shoes design contest.

At the same time, three scientific and technological achievements such as leather seamless bonding shoes have been identified as "high-tech products of Qingdao" by Qingdao.

In Haining, China Leather City, which is known as the largest leather city in Asia, has held the design competition awards many times in recent two years. It not only promoted the overall design level of leather industry in Haining, but also promoted the technological progress of the industry.

The Golden Monkey Group will win the first prize in the Chinese leather logo cup design competition held by the China Leather Association every year.

In addition, Lining, Yiming, Yi Er Kang and many other leather products manufacturing enterprises have held a product design Grand Prix, and so as to recruit talents, apply new design and new technology to products, and enhance the competitiveness of enterprises.

We expect the energy to be reactivated. In Shiling, Guangdong ranks first in leather goods and leather trading. Its leather products are exported to 25 provinces, municipalities, autonomous regions, Southeast Asia, Europe and the Americas, with an annual output value of 10 billion yuan.

In the middle and low leather luggage market in Europe, more than 50%% products are "Shiling manufacturing".

These leather bags exported to all parts of the world have been unable to raise their prices because of their lack of independent design and imitation and copying of foreign products for years.

In the past two years, Shiling leather industry is undergoing pformation.

In order to complete the industrial pformation, Shiling set up the first domestic town industry research institute, Guangzhou Suo Leather Industry Development Research Institute, aiming at concentrating superior talents, realizing the new round of industrial upgrading and technological leaps by integrating the leather and leather resources of the whole world. The cooperation with the leather inspection agency of France CTC group is also an important measure for Shiling to accelerate its integration with the international market.

Many enterprises are also investing more in product design. It is reported that they have entered the Huadu high tech luggage and bags Co., Ltd., China's top 12 leather goods company. The annual cost of product design accounts for 30% of the company's annual profits.

The deep ploughing and design of leather industry has been very fruitful.

In the year 2007 alone, AOKANG has declared as many as 50 patents, including inventions, utility models and designs, which have been used in AOKANG's 2008 Olympic etiquette shoes, GPRS positioning shoes, breathing shoes, shock absorbing shoes, and retractable high-heeled shoes.

The leather seamless bonding technology of Hengda Group is also awarded the China Light Industry Federation scientific and Technological Invention Award. After the technology is popularized nationwide, it will save 1 billion 530 million square feet of leather every year, and the annual amount will reach 38 billion 250 million yuan.

With the advent of more and more independently designed and self-developed products, people are looking forward to the reactivation of the energy of China's leather industry.