In the global footwear industry, China's footwear industry can be described as a sudden emergence. In just over ten years, China has become the largest footwear producer and exporter in the world. Especially after China's entry into WTO, China's footwear industry has shown a strong development trend. However, with the narrowing of globalization distance and the intensification of competition, the footwear industry should also start new thinking.

China has a long history of shoemaking. Footwear, as the top three export commodities in China, accounts for 30% to 40% of the total output. It is the country with the largest export volume of footwear, and it is also increasing year by year. In 2003, China exported a total of 654.38+0.4 billion pairs of leather shoes, with an export value of US$ 5.36 billion, up by 8% and 65.438+0% respectively over the previous year. Among them, the United States is still the largest export market for leather shoes in China, accounting for 60.6% of the total export of this product. According to the latest data from the General Administration of Customs, from June 65438 to September 2004, the total export volume of footwear in China was 3,697.29 million pairs, and the total export volume reached 91794.29 million US dollars, increasing by 20. 1% and10/%respectively over the same period of last year.

From the product level, according to the market survey conducted by China National Business Information Center in the first half of this year, at present, 85% of China's footwear exports are still middle and low-grade varieties, and the prices are generally between 10-30 USD, and many of them are even lower than 10 USD. For example, in September 2004, the average unit price of shoes burned in the "shoe burning" incident in Spain was only 5 euros; As the largest shoemaking country in the world, more than 7,200 shoemaking enterprises in China have formed five major shoemaking production distribution centers in Guangdong, Fujian, Wenzhou, Chengdu and Chongqing. There are as many as 2,000 shoe factories in Dongguan and its surrounding areas. As can be seen from the footwear production base in China, it is very serious that manufacturers blindly expand production and many small private factories have expanded their production lines. The output of shoes in China is still 3 to 5 times higher than the consumption, and the contradiction between supply exceeding demand is still very prominent. At present, the backlog of leather shoes in China has reached 300 million pairs.

In addition, the famous Wenzhou shoe industry in China has also experienced a shortage of skilled workers in recent years. At present, Wenzhou lacks a large number of technical talents, especially senior and intermediate technical talents. Since last year, the time span and severity of the shortage of migrant workers have become more prominent than in previous years. According to statistics, in 2004, the labor market demand in Zhejiang Province was about 6,543,800+0,340, and the number of job seekers was about 8,865,438+0,000, with a gap of 459,000, accounting for 34.25%. The lack of high-tech talents has caused many small and medium-sized enterprises to make ends meet. Without the development of new varieties, some small family businesses have been forced to close down. This is because the rapid expansion of the footwear industry in recent years has led to disorderly competition among many small and medium-sized enterprises. In addition, the shoe industry has a great demand for skilled workers, and there is a shortage of high-tech talents. The government has introduced a series of measures to help farmers, prompting many farmers to return to the land, resulting in a shrinking labor supply.

At the same time, it is not difficult to find that most of the shoes exported from China are processed with imported materials, and most of them are made for some enterprises such as China, Taiwan Province, Hongkong and South Korea. There are few independent brands that really belong to them, and the price is very low. Although some domestic brands have reached the intermediate or even upper level in the international market, they have not been recognized by the outside world. In China, a country with an annual output of 6 billion pairs of shoes, the footwear industry has not yet had a platform to exchange footwear technology, footwear fashion and footwear brands with international counterparts. The advanced equipment and excellent product quality of shoe-making enterprises in China make many international brands set China as their own brand-name shoe processing workshop, so there are few opportunities to communicate with their counterparts at home and abroad, and they know little about public consultation and brand management in the industry. The shoemaking industry in China needs to train professional buyers of footwear products of the times, and it is even more impossible to create a shoe fashion culture in China. Moreover, the proportion of high-grade and independent brands in exported shoes is very small, and most of the exported products are OEM. For example, most footwear products produced in China are sold in low-end shoe stores in the United States. Although China shoes can also be found in high-end shoe stores in the United States, the prices are obviously lower than those in Italy, Spain, Brazil and other countries, and the leather shoes made in China do not have their own brands, but all use foreign trademarks and brands.