They Used To Come To Shanghai To Get Shoes, But Now They Have Changed

Master Xi remembered that a customer from Zigong, Sichuan, brought 30000 yuan with him to purchase goods. He waited for a week, but still didn't wait shoes Son, he cried with anger.

　 At that time, Shanghai products were in great demand.

That's reasonable. At that time, our shoes were of good quality. They were not deformed, comfortable, breathable, and the materials were very particular. They were made of leather inside and outside.

Sometimes, after lunch, Xi Fuyue would sit at the desk with several teachers, smoking and chatting, and occasionally they would recall. "Every night, big trucks have to deliver goods." "Don't forget that there are always several people waiting at the door of Le Ala Workshop." What they recall is the most glorious period of Lantang Bobu Leather Shoes Co., Ltd., which can also be said to be the most glorious period of Shanghai leather shoes industry.

Throughout the 1980s, Xi Fuyue felt that he was making a pair of shoes - "83 shoes". This pair of shoes was developed and became popular in 1983, so it has this name.

"83 Shoes" is an improvement of the popular "youth style" men's shoes in the 1970s. The "youth style" shoes are square headed, lace up, black, and very elegant in style. At that time, it was very proud for young people to have such a pair of leather shoes. A netizen recalled on his blog: "At the beginning of the 1970s, leather shoes may still be a luxury, which is not affordable for ordinary people. I still remember that I have been in the countryside for several years. One year, I returned to Shanghai to visit my relatives, gritted my teeth, stamped my feet, and bought a pair of 'youth style' leather shoes at 18.6 yuan, more than half a month's salary. My eldest brother said, 'Too expensive!', which made me blush and ashamed, I wish I could find a crack in the ground. When I returned to the farm that year, I consciously brought some more Self study Series. "

"83 Shoes" is an improvement on the basis of "youth style". The vamp is sewn with thread, which makes it more fashionable and beautiful. Zhao Yueting said that this shoe has been popular for almost 10 years. "At that time, shoe innovation was very slow. A pair of shoes can be made for two or three years. Now a pair of shoes has only two or three months of 'life', and will soon be replaced."

At that time, Xi Fuyue and his colleagues were still making handicrafts Shoemaking , they are practicing the skills from the master. Gradually, supply fell short of demand. Since the mid-1980s, people's requirements for wearing began to increase, and they were no longer satisfied with the situation that a pair of leather shoes dominated the world in the past. They wanted to have more leather shoes. Xi Fuyue clearly felt the change. "We worked overtime, but we couldn't keep up with people's demand." In order to better integrate resources, in 1987, Lantang, Bobu and a leather shoe factory called Chaosheng merged to become Lantang Bobu Leather Shoes Co., Ltd. The company also moved to Xitai Road that year.

In the early 1990s, a bigger change occurred. In order to increase production more quickly, the original manual shoe making was changed to adhesive shoes, which meant that Xi Fuyue no longer needed to use the technology they learned in the year to sew soles stitch by stitch. Machine assembly lines can produce large quantities of adhesive shoes, and the daily output can reach hundreds of pairs.

But the problem also came. Customers complained a lot, and the complaint focused on the problem of opening glue. In the early 1990s, the glue used by shoe factories was called "neoprene", which was not stable enough.

Sunday: shoe degumming can be said to be a very familiar memory. At that time, there were many complaints. For those of you on the production line, there should be a lot of pressure, right?

Xi Fuyue: Yes, we should solve this problem as soon as possible. Because the machine is continuously producing, this problem must be solved quickly, otherwise the shoes that keep coming out of the production line will still have problems and will be complained about.

Sunday: How can you solve this problem?

Xi Fuyue: We "dissected" the degummed shoes and found that there was no glue on some uppers at all. We strengthened the procedure and required the glue to be brushed twice to improve the adhesion. There are some impurities on the upper of some shoes, which affect the adhesion. We need to keep the environment clean and free of dust. We need to use a processor to remove the hair. If there is grease, we need to clean it first, all of which are to remove some factors that damage the adhesion. At that time, even in summer, our workshop would not turn on the electric fan, because if there was wind, the glue surface would be dried first, affecting the viscosity.

Sunday: After doing this, has the problem of degumming been properly solved?

Xi Fuyue: To tell you the truth, it was not completely solved, but only partially. To really solve the problem, Taiwan enterprises introduced better glue in the late 1990s.

Sunday: It seems that this has solved the problem, but it also brings a bigger problem: the damage of glue to the health of shoemakers.

The production of adhesive shoes expanded the production scale, but the situation of demand exceeding supply still existed, because at that time, leather shoe retailers from all over the country would come to Shanghai to get shoes. Some customers from Northeast China will come to Shanghai several times a month, and some customers from Anhui, Sichuan, Fujian and other places will wait at the door of the workshop with money, waiting for the produced shoes to be sent to them. "I remember one time, a customer from Zigong, Sichuan, with 30000 yuan in his pocket, waited here for a week and still didn't wait for his shoes. He was so angry that he cried."

1994 and 1995 were the glorious years of Lantang Bobu Leather Shoes Co., Ltd., with annual sales reaching 100 million yuan. "As long as we produce as much as possible, we can sell as many as possible. Customers from other places are waiting in line to get our shoes," Xi Fuyue recalled.

Sunday: In the 1990s, customers from all over the country came to you to pick up shoes. Why?

Xi Fuyue: Our shoes are of good quality. They don't deform. They are also comfortable, breathable, and particular about materials. They are made of leather inside and outside. At that time, everything in Shanghai was famous. Many good brands and good things were in Shanghai. Now some regular customers still recognize our brand. Among our customers, there are many women in their forties and fifties because they feel comfortable wearing shoes.

Sunday: Do you miss that time?

Xi Fuyue: Yes, it was really a leap in the production of leather shoes in Shanghai. Later, it gradually failed.

Sunday: What does "no" mean and how did this change happen?

Xi Fuyue: In the middle and late 1990s, many private enterprises and foreign brands came in, which had a great impact on state-owned enterprises like ours. Private leather shoe enterprises in Wenzhou and Guangzhou have poached many experienced masters from leather shoe factories in Shanghai. They are also more flexible than state-owned enterprises in terms of system, so they have developed rapidly. Previously, customers from other places queued up Shanghai Now we have to go to other factories to get shoes, because the labor cost in Shanghai is too high, and there are no good materials in Shanghai. It's quite difficult to run a shoe factory in Shanghai now. In fact, it's quite difficult to run a handicraft manufacturing enterprise in Shanghai. As you can see, the workshops of handicraft manufacturing enterprises are still the same as they were in the 1980s and 1990s, which is their most brilliant time.