Reporter Ren Yifang/Sui County, Henan Province
The "Footwear Capital of China" is located in Huaiyang County, Zhoukou City, Henan Province, which was a footwear and clothing production area in ancient times, and then slowly declined. In 2011, the local government referred to the "Jinjiang model" and became one of the important footwear bases in the mainland. The average production capacity of Sui County has reached 350 million pairs, with an annual output value of 20 billion yuan, and Taiwanese companies are not absent. "ETtoday" specially visited Jiahong Shoes, a Taiwan-funded enterprise, to open the automated production line, and the production process of the well-known brand Li Ning in the mainland was rarely exposed.
Looking back on history, Sui County, Henan Province is an important production area of ancient shoes and clothing, the Han Dynasty was known as "Splendid Xiangyi", the times have changed, known as the "migratory bird economy" of the shoemaking industry, with the mainland Fujian, Guangdong, Chongqing, Chengdu, Hebei have high-density shoe-making industry, five major shoe-making industry bases, only the most densely populated hinterland of the Central Plains, there is no formed footwear production base, forming a blank area.
▲Sui County, Henan Province has become an important shoe-making production area in the "Footwear Capital of China" within 10 years. (Photo/Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
In 2011, Sui County made a major decision to transfer the footwear industry from the agricultural focus, and has developed for 11 years, Sui County has 596 well-known shoe-making and shoe materials supporting industrial and trade enterprises in the mainland, with a production capacity of 350 million pairs, an annual output value of more than 15 billion yuan (unit: RMB, the same below), a supporting capacity of more than 90%, and more than 80,000 employees, driving local employment opportunities and GDP.
In the structure where the total amount of footwear made in mainland China accounts for 70% of the world's total, Sui County's casual sports shoes manufacturing accounts for 30% of the domestic structure, and was awarded the "China Footwear Industry Base". For every 3 pairs of shoes in the world, 2 pairs are "Made in China", and for every 10 pairs of casual shoes in the mainland, 3 pairs are from Sui County, becoming the largest casual sports shoe factory outside Fujian and Jinjiang.
Zhongqiao (Henan) Sports Co., Ltd. specially opened the cross-strait media group to visit, the reporter walked into the modern production workshop, there is no traditional shoe-making chemical odor, sole, punching, high-frequency, printing, sewing, molding, packaging one-stop automated sports shoes production line. "These devices are all produced in Sui County!" said the on-site staff.
▲The factory was changed to an automated production line, and some details of shoemaking were completed by operators. (Photo/Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
Xiao Chen, an on-site operator, told the reporter of "ETtoday", "I work an average of 10 hours a day, not necessarily two days off a week, I need to work overtime, I can do more shifts, and I can make more money by scheduling shifts." 」
When asked, will you worry about being replaced by automated equipment? Xiao Chen said with a smile that some technologies cannot be completed by machines, such as the work of sewing soles, or manual work is the most accurate, and most of the repetitive and tedious work is handed over to the machine.
▲Many shoe factories in mainland China are moving towards intelligent transformation. (Photo/Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
The reporter also found that even if it is an automated production line, there are still many processes that need to be manually checked by the machine, such as measuring the average height of each pair of sneakers, and correcting the unevenness immediately.
When it comes to the transformation of automation and intelligence, Taiwan-funded enterprise Jiahong Shoes is not absent, the first to open factories in Guangdong, Jiangxi, Hunan to make shoes, in 2011 as the first shoe-making enterprise to settle in Sui County, witnessing the process of Sui County's zero foundation to "China's shoe capital".
▲Taiwanese Jiahong Shoes keeps pace with the times and adopts environmentally friendly materials to make shoes. (Photo/Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
On the day of the media interview, it happened to be the production line of the well-known brand Li Ning in the mainland, and the integrated intelligent system helped the operators save repetitive and tedious work and have more time to check the quality. "For the sake of environmental protection, it was changed to non-toxic and non-irritating materials, which is also a guarantee for employees. The staff said.
Lai Jianhong, a Taiwanese director of Jiahong Shoes, said, "With the support of the local government, Jiahong Shoes has grown steadily, and we have helped the well-known brands in mainland China, Li Ning, Anta, and 361 OEM, which initially only had the first production line, and now has 15 production lines, which took ten years to rectify. 」
"Compared to traditional production in the past, our factory automation has reached 40%. Lai Jianhong also pointed out that there are also some limitations in the material properties of shoemaking, which cannot be fully automated, and a large number of automation applications in other auxiliary production processes can solve problems such as insufficient manpower and manual instability and fatigue, which can improve productivity by 15-20% and yield by 20%.
▼ Taiwanese Jiahong Shoes helps the production line of the mainland brand Li Ning. (Photo/Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
▲Lai Jianhong, the Taiwanese director of Taiwanese Jiahong Shoes. (Photo/Photo by reporter Ren Yifang)
In recent years, Jiahong Footwear has participated in the design work to meet the changing needs of the mainland market, such as zodiac shoes and Internet celebrity co-branded shoes. Lai Jianhong believes that "in the past, OEM and ODM are now a combination, and the brand cannot be controlled by the foundry after all, so maintaining the image of the brand and giving back stable quality to the brand and consumers are the core keys to sustainable management." 」
After the epidemic, the mainland encourages the quality of "Made in China", the trust of local national fashion products has gradually increased, the visibility has also improved, coupled with the rising health awareness of the people and the resumption of various international sports events, the business opportunities of the mainland sports industry are still very broad.