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 - …
The UK-based magazine Shook just released their third issue this week featuring Detroiters such as Danny Brown, Osborne, Samiyam, and Channel One. Shook is quickly becoming a respected magazine of urban music globally. The first three issue can be downloaded in PDF format on their site, but
Download Issue #1: GUILTY SIMPSON, INVINCIBLE, DENAUN PORTER, BLACK MILK, JAY ELECTRONICA, GOYA MUSIC, BENJI B, PAUL WHITE,HVW8 FEIYUE SHOES, DJ MURO, SPACE INVADER, and more.
Download Issue #2: SAMIYAM, FLYING LOTUS, RAS_G, POO BAH RECORDS, HUDSON MOHAWKE, MIKE SLOTT, JOE GIBBS, TAKE, SA-RA, JAMES POYSER, KARRIEM RIGGINS, ANDREW MEZA, BLU, TA'RAACH, and more.
Download issue #3: DANNY BROWN, OSBORNE, SAMIYAM, KID CREOLE, ACID HOUSE, HECTOR LAVOE, JUNOT DIAZ, and more.
It's an article I found from Landor (a branding company with 24 global offices and 854 talented people.) about Feiyue and let's see how they reviewed the hit. - Steward
This summer IWOM spread beyond the borders and interestingly enough, Chinese old-school sports brands are making a comeback among the right crowd. Sneakers from such brands as Feiyue (meaning Flying Forward), and Shuang Xing (Double Star) were the hottest shoes in China back in the 70s and now are cool again among kids from the Middle Kingdom to the United Kingdom.
Cool Hunting is praising the comfortable shoes, and if that wasn’t enough, the shoes are hard to find, even in China, which makes the hunt for them equally exciting. A pair of these sneakers is being sold for as much as 50 EU in London.
In China the buzz started when Orlando Bloom was photographed wearing a pair of Feiyue. The photo quickly spread through BBSes and sparkled among netizens, leading to a cult following, including such tributes as the photo book by a Chinese graphic design student and the coveted “Warrior” t-shirts in Beijing, which I bought myself at the Gu Lou area.
From Mr. Bloom playing an Elf in the Lord of the Rings movies to wearing Feiyue, the “flying forward” sneakers, it makes me wonder whether this is a clever below-the-line move or one of the most curious brand hijacks we are about to witness, all thanks to P2P (online peer to peer) power.
Keywords: bbs, feiyue, internet word of mouth, iwom, shuang xing [see full text here]
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.
Original article on Lifeweek, 490th issue(Aug 4th released), Chinese version available only.
Feiyue shoes was born in Shanghai in the 1920’s. It has been a reference among all Chinese social categories from the countryman to the politician, from the captain of the national soccer Team to the famous Shaolin masters... Feiyue became famous during the 30's for its robustness, its flexibility and its comfort, essential requirements for Chinese martial arts. According to Chinese tradition, Feiyue symbolizes the dual elevation of both body and mind.
In 2005, Patrice Bastian a globe trotter living in Shanghai with an unconditional passion for “sneakers”, decided to team up with friend and graphic designer Charles Munka to lift up the image and looks of Feiyue. With the help of Nicolas Seguy, and Clement Fauth, an ideal Team was then built to give back to Feiyue its noble touch. After a creative transformation/modification, yet keeping Feiyue’s vintage touch, hard work on quality requirements bound to western markets has been done. Thus, in February 2006, the first real Feiyue collection was born.
Now even some Hollywood stars like Orlando Bloom, Brad Pitt chose to wear Feiyue.
Les chaussures de la marque chinoise FEIYUE rencontrent un vif succès en Europe et aux Etats-Unis
Orlando Bloom portant des chaussures de marque FEIYUE
Hi, My name is Steward. I'm a native Chinese student in Shanghai. I collaborate with friends to write this blog about Feiyue shoes (clike to know more about us...)
By 阿杜.Steward
