Chinese press tells the origin of Feiyue

An article with the title “History of Feiyue shoes”(飞跃鞋的前世今生) appeared on one of the most infulential Chinese Magazine, Lifeweek on its last week issue.

Origin,Year 1931

According to the press, the unique original Feiyue shoes manufacturer in China is called TopOne (大博文鞋业有限公司), dating back to 1931 when the firm was first founded. The firm’s former name was 大孚(meaning reliablity) Rubber Factory, became state-owned after the foundation of People’s Republic of China. Since then, the firm started producing automobile tyres and sneakers for domestic market.

1.6 millions

One of the retired employee of TopOne said, in 1959, the annual production scale of Feiyue reached 1.6 millions, bringing the brand No.1 Title in the market in 1964. During the 1990’s, the firm underwent a series of merger and finally became part of Shanghai LanSheng Corporation (兰生,listed in China A-share 600826). The manufacturing plants then moved from West Zhongshan Road (SH) to Pudong new district(SH), and at last relocated to Qingpu Industrial Park (SH) recently.

200 thousands

Nowadays, Mr. Chen Jianyue, factory director told the reporter, the factory is still producing original Feiyue sneakers, yet already shrank to 200 thousands pairs per year. When mentioned the decline of Feiyue, Mr.Chen still remembered the good old days ”We had high demand, trucks from all over China were always waiting for the shoes with bunch of cash ready to pay.”

New address becomes a blur after relocation

On the package of Feiyue shoes, we can see the address of the manufacturing site is still Pudong new district, yet the contact information is no longer available. Reporters from Lifeweek tried to manage a visit to the new plant in Qingpu Industrial Park, but Mr.Chen said because the new location was not yet fully in operation and refused the request. Even postman has no idea about the exact address of the plant, adding mystery to the shoe legend.

The only existing retail shop

Now to the fans of Feiyue, probably the retail shop on No.585 Zunyi Road, Shanghai is the only place has root with the firm. It was born as the firm, and witnessed the long history. It’s reported to be the only existing Franchised Stores for TopOne in China.

In the photo, it's the retail shop mentioned. Ms.Ma(left),owner of the shop,now 53 has began to work in TopOne since she was 18. In the article, she shared stories between she and Feiyue.Zhao Shifu(right), has experiences of making Feiyue for over 40 years.