Innovation in the entire industry chain from “a piece of silk” to “a pair of shoes” creates “Made in China” advantages that cannot be moved away

Chendai Town, Jinjiang City, Fujian Province, located at the estuary of Jinjiang River, covers an area of less than 40 square kilometers, but is densely populated with more than 3,000 shoe companies, with an annual output of more than 1 billion pairs of sports shoes. Jinjiang has therefore become the “Shoe Capital of China” “.

Starting from a family workshop at the beginning of reform and opening up, it has grown from scratch and has grown to include leading companies in the industry such as Anta, Xtep, and 361. In 2022, facing multiple impacts from domestic and foreign markets, Jinjiang’s textile, footwear and clothing industry bucked the trend and grew. The output value of the footwear and clothing industry exceeded 300 billion yuan for the first time, and the output value of the textile industry continued to exceed 100 billion yuan. In 2022, Anta Sports Goods Co., Ltd.’s revenue reached 53.651 billion yuan, ranking first in the annual corporate revenue rankings in China’s sports shoes and apparel market.

Why Jinjiang? Just ten years ago, the sports shoes and apparel industry was still engaged in a price war due to overcapacity and high inventory. How did Jinjiang sports shoes and apparel brands “rebirth”? In recent years, part of the shoe and clothing industry chain has moved to Southeast Asia, causing widespread concern and concern. Is the advantage of “Chinese shoes” still there? With these questions, we rushed to Jinjiang to investigate.

Innovation of the entire industry chain from “a piece of silk” to “a pair of shoes”

Foot scanner, plantar pressure test track, three-dimensional motion capture system… In the sports science laboratory of ANTA Sports Goods Co., Ltd., many professional instruments and equipment can’t help but make people marvel that “there are so many doorways hidden behind a pair of shoes.” .

At the Beijing Winter Olympics, the Chinese team won its first gold medal in short track speed skating with a lead of 0.016 seconds. The competition uniforms worn by the team members came from Anta. This clothing, known as “Sharkskin on Ice”, was jointly developed by Anta Sports Science Laboratory and domestic professional clothing materials laboratories. It uses two-way anti-cut fabric to create a 360° full-body anti-cut clothing for the national team. The cutting and anti-cutting strength is 15 times that of steel wire. Compared with ordinary skating clothing, the drag reduction of competition clothing is increased by 5% to 10%.

In Jinjiang, many textile, footwear and apparel industries have established their own innovation laboratories and increased investment in research and development. “Shoes and clothing are not only a labor-intensive industry, but also a technology-intensive industry, especially high-tech industry.” said Zou Xu, deputy director of corporate public relations of Xtep Group.

Consensus comes from painful lessons learned after setbacks. Around 2012, the domestic sports shoes and apparel industry ushered in its “darkest moment”. Due to long-term disorderly expansion, crazy store openings, price wars, and product homogeneity, inventory levels were high and many companies’ capital chains were broken.

The original model is unsustainable. Innovation drives the transformation of the traditional footwear and apparel industry and is reborn. Sports footwear and apparel companies represented by Anta, Xtep, 361, etc. keenly capture the trend of domestic consumption upgrades and continue to innovate in aspects such as fabrics, design, technology, and process management. Elements such as “comfort,” “technology,” and “fashion” have become The “new domestic product” label for sports shoes meets the diversified consumer needs of Chinese people and has won the recognition of more and more consumers.

A pair of sports shoes, from silk thread, fabric, sole to finished product, has more than 100 processes, from “a piece of silk” to “a pair of shoes”, involving tens of thousands of upstream and downstream companies, from polyester chips, yarn , mesh, dyeing and finishing to fabrics, shoe materials, soles, accessories and other aspects of the industrial chain, innovation has become commonplace.

In the smart factory of Huayu Zhengying Group, thousands of looms are running automatically, and pieces of new shoe upper materials have begun to take shape. The company’s CEO, Su Chengyu, showed reporters the waterproof shoe upper material developed by the company. Water flows continuously through the densely meshed surface, but the other side of the fabric is as dry as ever.

In the upstream of fabric companies, spinning, chemical fiber and other companies are also constantly innovating. In the workshop of Fujian Baihong Group, waterproof fiber, imitation cotton fiber, imitation silk fiber, Flame-retardant fiber…Many new fiber filament products continue to be launched, allowing companies to maintain a competitive advantage.

“Refined” into a 400 billion yuanindustrial cluster

In 2022, despite multiple impacts such as shrinking domestic and foreign markets, Jinjiang’s textile, footwear and clothing industry bucked the trend and grew by more than double digits, exceeding 400 billion yuan.

There are no cumbersome stitching and accessories decoration, just an upper and a sole, which are combined into a pair of fly-knit sports shoes through 3D weaving. At Fujian Post Clothing Co., Ltd., deputy general manager Cai Canrong showed off the company’s “proud work.” He said the product takes only two to three days to make, one-sixth that of traditional shoes.

Having been in the shoe material field for 10 years, Post has grown into a national high-tech enterprise. This is due to the “big and small complementarity” between small and medium-sized enterprises and industry leading enterprises. Ten years ago, Post’s main business was the production of knitted sweaters. Due to the market downturn, the company’s business volume was almost halved. When it was unable to do anything, the company’s unique technology in the field of flat knitting attracted Anta, and the two companies established cooperation.

“We were not good at making shoes originally, so Anta sent a technical team to provide guidance, which ultimately helped us apply fly-knit technology to upper materials and develop fly-knit shoes.” Cai Canrong said, fromSince the first order of 1.2 million pairs, the company has grown “backed by a big tree” and has now become the largest supplier of Anta’s shoe upper fabrics.

There are many similar cases in Jinjiang. Backed by two industrial clusters with a scale of 400 billion yuan in textiles and footwear and apparel and a group of industry leading enterprises, thousands of small and medium-sized enterprises have found a foothold in the supply chain and taken advantage of the trend. on, forming a dependence relationship of “I am in you” and “You are in me”.

The reporter interviewed relevant persons in charge of Anta, Xtep, 361 and other companies and learned that compared with international sports shoes and clothing brands, these leading domestic sports shoes and clothing companies are backed by huge industrial clusters, and most of their supply chains Locally, upstream and downstream supporting enterprises have long-term cooperation and continue to collaborate and innovate to jointly create competitive advantages and achieve win-win results.

“Within a radius of 50 kilometers from Jinjiang, we can quickly find all the materials, accessories, R&D teams, and skilled workers needed to design, produce, and manufacture a pair of sports shoes. This is an advantage accumulated over decades.” Jinjiang Mayor Wang Mingyuan He told reporters that in recent years, despite multiple impacts, the 400 billion yuan industrial cluster of textiles, footwear and clothing has grown against the trend, forming an industrial advantage of accelerated expansion of leading enterprises, prominent differences between small and medium-sized enterprises, and close coordination between upstream and downstream, with an output value of over 1 billion There are 57 enterprises worth RMB 5 billion, 2 enterprises exceeding RMB 5 billion, and 17 provincial-level specialized and new enterprises.

The advantages of “Made in China” that cannot be moved away

At the beginning of the New Year, an economic and trade delegation composed of heads of party and government agencies and business representatives from Jinjiang City rushed to the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam to carry out economic and trade exchanges and cooperation.

Anta signed an agreement to settle in Davao, Philippines, Jinjiang International Shoe and Textile City set up an exhibition center in Vietnam, and some shoe and clothing companies investigated setting up factories there… Many entrepreneurs participating in economic and trade exchanges said that Southeast Asia is home to 670 million people The population market will open up more space for a new round of investment, operation and trade for private enterprises in Jinjiang.

In recent years, the transfer of some domestic textile, shoe and clothing factories to Southeast Asia has attracted widespread attention. The reporter learned from interviews that some textile, footwear and clothing companies in Jinjiang are also setting up factories in Southeast Asian countries. Xintai Group is a manufacturer of textile fabrics and textile machinery. Overseas orders account for about 60% of the group’s revenue. In order to meet the needs of overseas customers, the company set up a factory in Vietnam in 2016, with more than 300 workers and a current annual output value of 400 million yuan.

Huabao Intelligent Technology Co., Ltd. is one of the earliest shoe materials and fabric companies in Jinjiang to set up factories in Vietnam. It currently has two local factories with more than 2,000 workers. Company chairman Huang Jinhuang told reporters that setting up a factory in Vietnam can deeply participate in the international market, especially the supply chain of first-tier sports shoes and apparel brands in Europe and the United States.

Huang Jinhuang and Xintai Group President Cai Qinglai told reporters that although they have set up factories overseas for many years, the local industrial chain is not well equipped. Soles, uppers, even shoelaces, hardware accessories, etc. are all produced in Jinjiang and shipped to overseas factories in containers. Assemble.

High-end yarns, fabrics, machinery and equipment at the high end of the value chain are more dependent on China. Su Chengyu recently went to Southeast Asia to inspect factory establishment matters. He told reporters that many of the foundries of international brands in China have moved to Southeast Asia. If they want to continue doing business with international brands, they have to set up factories in Southeast Asia. Judging from the situation there, the industrial chain is imperfect, and Chinese manufacturing has obvious advantages in scale, innovation capabilities,talenttechnology, etc. Take a fabric factory as an example. A factory with hundreds of machine tools is considered very large. However, in Jinjiang, digital and intelligentfactories are popping up everywhere. Many companies have just one workshop. Has hundreds of machine tools.

The reporter learned from the interview that although many companies have set up factories in Southeast Asia, managers, R&D teams, engineers, technical workers, etc. have to be sent out from China. “In the long run, Southeast Asia’s cost advantages in terms of labor, land, water and electricity are not obvious.” Several heads of Jinjiang footwear and clothing companies that have set up factories in Southeast Asia told reporters.

Strengthen basic research, increase innovative research and development, and innovate from “a piece of thread” to “a pair of shoes”, from materials, processes, equipment, brands, channels, etc., to create an industrial cluster that “cannot be moved” and seize the market share. In the middle and high end of the value chain, the advantages of “Made in China” are still there and will win greater development space.

“After decades of development, the domestic textile, footwear and apparel industry has gone from OEMing for international brands and imitating their operations in the early days of reform and opening up, to building independent brands, improving product quality, continuously improving R&D and innovation capabilities, and improving the reputation of domestic brands. continue to rise, their domestic market share has steadily increased, and some have surpassed their internationally renowned brand counterparts. Against this background, more Chinese textile, footwear and apparel companies are not only participating in the supply chain of international brands, but also independently expanding overseas markets. The time is right to win greater market space,” said Zhang Wenxian, member of the Standing Committee of the Quanzhou Municipal Party Committee and Secretary of the Jinjiang Municipal Party Committee.

AAA

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