Industrial Cluster: Haining Small Socks "Weave" New Patterns

The socks that many NBA (American Professional Basketball League) stars like to wear are produced in Haining. With rich and unique patterns, outstanding quality and other advantages, Zhejiang Zhiyong Sporting Goods Co., Ltd.'s STANCE brand sports socks have been designated as the supply brand of sports socks for NBA, MLB (Major League Baseball) and many other well-known events for many years. Tan Peiyun, the workshop director of the enterprise, said with a smile, "Our socks can be sold for hundreds of yuan each, and the more expensive they are, the more popular they are." When entering the intelligent workshop of the enterprise, nearly 400 imported full-automatic hosiery looms operate efficiently, and only 40 workers are needed to produce 50000 pairs of socks a day. In 2024, the sales volume of the enterprise is expected to exceed 200 million yuan, and the orders this year have also been scheduled to June.

The "Tianzu socks" that can walk outdoors without wearing shoes, the thin and light breathable socks made of paper, the "pineapple socks" that can be stuffed with a pineapple but are not afraid of snagging... There is also a big way out for the subdivision track, and Haining has "woven" a pair of small socks into a new pattern. In the first November of last year, Haining sock industry realized an industrial output value above designated size of 3.659 billion yuan, up 13.6% year on year, and is expected to reach 4 billion yuan for the whole year. Over the same period, Haining's fashion industry, represented by leather, warp knitting, home textile, socks and clothing, realized an output value of 74 billion yuan, up 8.8% year on year; The added value reached 13.36 billion yuan, an increase of 10% over the same period last year, and it was successfully selected as the provincial modern textile and clothing industry cluster coordination zone.

If infants and children like to bite socks, will there be any safety and health problems? Many Baoma have such concerns. This problem was solved by Haining Yuli Socks Industry Co., Ltd., which took two years to develop socks that can be "eaten" into the mouth. "Baby socks have a small proportion in the hosiery market, but their quality requirements are high, so they are called 'hard to make orders', but this is where our opportunities lie." Xu Xiaofei, director of the internal trade department of Yuli Hosiery Industry, said that for the health and safety needs of baby socks, the enterprise uses plant environmental friendly dyes, and the printing process can reach the food level. It is this "difficult order" that has been made. Now, more than 10 million pairs of socks are sold overseas every year in Yuli sock industry, especially more than 80% of baby brands in Japanese stores have reached cooperation with enterprises.

The difference advantage is better than the price, which is the coincident choice of Haining sock enterprises. "Haining sock enterprises have improved their materials, design, weaving and dyeing to make the sub track of baby and child fitness, anti pressure and anti bacteria, health care, etc. bigger and stronger." Zhuang Shusong, president of Haining Socks Industry Association, said that since last year, the Association has also taken the lead in cooperating with Beijing Institute of Fashion Technology to integrate Haining's characteristic cultural elements into socks, and has designed series of "martial arts", "crescent", "human", etc, Test the innovative track of hydrology.

To open up new tracks, we should also expand new markets. Last August, Haining Central Asia Economic and Trade Delegation led by the main leader of Haining Municipal Party Committee went to Kazakhstan and other countries jointly building the "Belt and Road" to carry out economic and trade exchanges. More than 20 enterprises in warp knitting, home textiles, socks, building materials and other industries gained many new friends. "This time, in addition to strengthening existing markets such as Brazil, we also successfully connected to the new Central Asian market. Last year, cross-border e-commerce sales exceeded 300 million yuan, an increase of 20% over the previous year." Qian Lingyan, head of Haining Hande Socks Industry Co., Ltd., said.

Cluster and strong chain can build the foundation of sock industry. Last year, Haining established the mechanism of "chain leader+chain owner" in traditional advantageous industrial clusters such as fashion, new materials, high-end equipment manufacturing, and selected 12 municipal leaders as "chain leaders" to take the lead in solving difficult problems in enterprise development, and selected 32 leading backbone enterprises as "chain owners" to lead the industrial development.

(Source: Zhejiang Daily)