By 阿杜.Steward
Shanghai
One of our reader Valentina from Italy just sent me an email to show her confusion about 2 kinds of Feiyue shoes that are available in the market.
Clearly she's not the only one puzzled by this myth, so I decide to quote this email and clarify the issue to all of you :)
With Valentina's permission, I quote her email as below (I also bold out the areas that specially focus on her concern) :
From: Valentina
Sent: Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 10:34 PM
To: Steward.du[at]gmail.com
Subject: Confusion about Feiyue and FeivueHello, Steward
I'm Valentina from Italy and I read your post on Feiyue page on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Feiyue/11976959363
I don't have any stories to tell but i'd like to ask you a question.
I was searching info about Feiyue shoes becouse i was used to wear them during my wushu training.
Me, my friends, my master and even my chinese monk master wear the same shoes, but i noticed that they are not original Feiyue.
They are Feivue (V not Y). I also noticed that many martial artists wear Feivue and not Feiyue, just becouse they are much cheaper (15€ for Feivue against 50€ for Feiyue).
Many people sell these shoes on ebay calling them FeiYue at low prices but they are actually FeiVue!
I was asking myself: is this imitation also popular in China? Do you know something about that?
This is just simple curiosity :)
You can see the differences here:
FEIYUE: http://grandthestore.com/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/feiyue.jpg
FEIVUE: http://www.themmazone.net/images/Feiyue-shoes-white-large1.jpg
See you soon,
Valentina
Here's my answer
From: Steward
Sent: Mon, Feb 2, 2009 at 8:34 PM
To:
Subject: Re:Confusion about Feiyue vs Feivue
Hi, Vale
For your concern,
First, there're 2 kinds of Feiyue shoes that are most widely seen in the market a) the French redesigned version of Feiyue b) the original Chinese Feiyue.
(For history of these shoes, I also suggest you see a previous post by me, please click here )
a) the Feiyue you mentioned in the email is the French Feiyue,
b) while the Feivue (as you put it) is actually the original Chinese Feiyue (in fact it's also spelt Feiyue, only because the poor printing caused your misunderstanding :P )
Q:Is this imitation popular in China ?
A: The French version is not available in China, we only have the original one :)
Plus, through the enclosed slide, I intend to give you a really easy illustration to identify these 2 types of Feiyue. (please click on the photo to see extra large zoom-in )
Download attached powerpoint file
(F-French, C-Chinese)
#1Shoe Tongue
The C version of Feiyue has on the tougue, TOPONE(大博文)'s wording and a star incon as trademark logo. When we compare it with the F version, Topone
s trademark is replaced with Feiyue and two parallel arrows.
#2Sole of the Shoe
Besides the outlook you can see from the photo, I'd like to add a few words for this part. The sole of C version Feiyue, I would not advise them for running, as the sole does not have much padding (They have richer padding in F version ). They are excellent for any martial arts requiring a wide range of foot motion or very low stances (like karate/Northern style kung fu/wushu) because they leave the ankles uncovered, allowing a large range of ankle flexibility.The inside of the shoe, you see the size of it.(I wear a #43 lol)They're also good because the flat sole keeps you from pronating while doing kicks or being in low stances, which can sprain or strain an ankle
#3 Side logo
As I said earlier, they're actually both spelt Feiyue :)
Hope this helps
Steward
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Comparison: French Feiyue and Chinese Feiyue
Talk with Yap, a reader from Singapore
By 阿杜.Steward
Shanghai
We just caught up with one of our reader Yap (who's from Singapore) to discuss his recent travel to Shanghai and the Feiyue 585 shop.
1. Hi,Yap,it's nice to have you. Can you introduce yourself briefly and I am curious about how did you get to know Feiyue ?
I am a Singaporean and working as an IT consultant. I love sports such as football, swimming, jogging, visiting to new countries, watching movies that has neat twists in the end.
We saw the pictures of Orlando Bloom spotted with his pair of Feiyue, google and found your blog.
2. Can you tell us the experience of visiting Feiyue 585, and share with our readers your findings ?I just visited Shanghai this week for work. Using your information, I managed to visit the Feiyue 585 store yesterday. Thanks for that although it felt further than the 473.831 m that you mentioned from your blog when I walked from the train station( I used exit 2 of Loushanguanlu station).
I think it was quite an experience, especially trying to find the shop from the train station. The walk from the station seemed an eternity and worrying that I might have made a wasted trip if the shop has already closed for the day or if I had walked the wrong way. When I reach the 585 units, I really thought that I had got it wrong as the first few 585 units do not seemed to be selling shoes, until I walked to the last unit 585-1. The feeling cannot be described when I realised I am at the entrance of the legendary Feiyue 585 shop.The 585 store is nearer the traffic junction. Like you mentioned, shoes are stewn everywhere, with some stacked on on the shelves. Special mention to the owner who served me. She was very helpful, patience and chatty as she took my orders of 11 pairs.
Price wise, I think they increased the price recently after the publicity (I bought the white with blue and red stripes at $28 RMB). Also, not sure if it was only me but I felt some of the shoes which I wanted to buy had really bad imprints of the words "Feiyue" on them, with some wordings fading off and with uneven alignment of the soles joining to the canvas part of the shoe.
Oh by the way, do try the steam xiao long bao next to the shop. They were simply delicious, but be prepared to queue.
3. Can you tell us your attitude towards other Chinese classical stuff ? How should readers get in touch with you?I would like to see these Chinese classical stuff earning more recognition from the people of China themselves. You can contact me here via email, add me in MSN using the same address force_vomit@yahoo.com.sg or add me in facebook with the same address. As a start perhaps, just put my facebook as the main source of contact.Thanks Yap !
Photos by Yap, check out his facebook photo alum for more...
If you're also a Feiyue fans and want to share with us your stories, click here... Continue Reading...
The coolest Chirstmas gift this year!
By 阿杜.Steward
Shanghai
This is the coolest Christmas gift for me this year - the BOOK OF WARRIORS !!!
It arrived safe and sound today from friend Shumeng in Finland, who's the author of the book.
About the Shumeng & the book
Shumeng is overseas Chinese from Helsinki, Finland.“Book of Warriors” is her attempt to tell the world about Warrior sneakers. In order to do so, She released a photography book featuring people who still wear them, each book accompanied by a pair of WB-1 Warriors.
For more, visit Shumeng's website.
Merry Christmas, and for those who're still in the fight with final exams like me, add oil！ Continue Reading...
Some beautiful Feiyue photos from Troy's blog
Some beautiful Feiyue photos from Marcus Troy's blog (a forward thinker, cool hunter, trend setter, fashion addict, footwear aficionado, retail nerd and creative visionary....)
Permission for the quotation by Marcus : P
info@marcustroy.com to steward.du
Hey Steward!
Thanks for reading. You can take those pictures for sure. ...
Sent from my BlackBerry device on the Rogers Wireless Network
Troy
Continue Reading...
Feiyue on Beijing TV
By 阿杜.Steward
Shanghai
Media coverage of Chinese classical sneakers on Beijing TV, which put together many vivid illustrations of the shoes.
In this clip, you will find,
- Other types of Classical sneakers besides Feiyue and Warriors
- Where to grab a pair of those in Beijing
- A comparison between original Feiyue and the French redesign version
- And also some collectors of the shoes will be telling stories you probably you already knew :P
- …
For high quality of this clip, please visit http://hd.openv.com/pro_play-BTV7prog_20080901_6616463.html Continue Reading...
Hey,how do you like my design ?
By 阿杜.Steward
Shanghai
Hey, just would like to know how you guys like my freshly designed poster for Feiyue. Actually I stole this idea from an ad hanger on the street the other day :P
-I'm pretty satisfied with this vintage touch of combination
-"请走型人道" and Feiyue's double arrows symbol "<<". -In Chinese,“请走型人道” has the same pronunciation with "请走行人道",which means, "Please Follow the Zebra Crossing".
-while-“型” in Chinese, means fashionable,stylish, and “人” means people.
Now you learn Chinese on this as well :) ,"型人"->stylish person, "行人" pedestrian.
Have a good days!
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Grab a pair of Feiyue in LA !
By 阿杜.Steward
Shanghai
This morning a friend from USA sent me a link of "Lions Den". It's a garment shop who choose its own fashion labels and favors Chinese element ambience as well. You won't find large paragraph of text introduction or fancy flash animation on its website, but with a simply click through you would probably be glued by what they offer.
What I like best is that they put on the site photos of youngster wearing Tees and other accessory from the shop, instead of officially well-designed sexy professional model. Well maybe I can email them my photo to see if there is a chance to get published :P
Oh,last thing, our favorite icon Feiyue shoes and T-shirts are also available in this shop in LA. No idea if it's the first shop that brings in this hit in USA, but sincerely hope they would make another sweep like they did in Europe over the last few years.
And today is Chinese lural date Aug 15th, happy Mid-Autumn Festival to everyone,enjoy your mooncake :)
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