Tiger Claw brand Feiyue

[Brule]

Yeah, yeah, yuck it up.

But you know what they say about guys with big feet...

I guess there's no tiptoeing around that one......you got me.

[SimonM]

Bwahahaha

[jimbob]

I asked this before but didn't get much of a response so I'm re-asking in the hope that more people might be able to chime in.

Has anyone worn/does anyone wear minimalist running shoes to train in? They don't need to be those 5 toed things - just anything with good ground feel?

I love my Feiyues - love them - but after training hard my feet sweat and they get wet and then they're not the most comfortable things to wear the next day.

I was thinking of either getting a second pair, or investing in something minimalist that would breathe a little more.

Anyone out there have any experience?

thanks in advance.

[GeneChing]

Read our latest ezine article: In the Shoes of the Masters: Search for the Ultimate Kung Fu Shoe in China by Greg Brundage

[GeneChing]

This article is a bit dated and doesn't really add anything we don't already know, but it came out this year and this thread was due for a ttt.

APR. 17, 2017
Feiyue - From Orlando Bloom to the Shaolin Flying Monks



Feiyue originated in 1920’s Shanghai and gained fast popularity for their robust, flexible, and comfortable design. This was the main reason why they were a favorite among martial artists and athletes.



From Wu Shu practitioners to the Shaolin Flying Monks and Kung Fu masters of old, the Feiyue sneaker became a staple and to this present day is still a regular in martial arts clubs around the world, and even the French training discipline of Parkour.The grippy rubber sole, reasonably strong build and sensitivity they give the wearer are traits also valued by free runners and traceurs, for whom intense movements really put the sneakers to the test.



Based on Chinese tradition, Feiyue symbolizes the dual elevation of body and mind (literally translated as “Flying Forward”) and with the opening of China and the associated cultural and economic shifts, prominent French designers and entrepreneurs - namely Patrice Bastian and his team that included Nicolas Seguy and Clement Fauth, seized the opportunity to bring Feiyue to Europe.

In 2006 the Feiyue sneakers were taken to France and quickly picked up on by the likes of Vogue and celebrity stars such as Orlando Bloom (even his son was seen sporting the cult item).



And to this day if you go walking in the white version of these shoes in Brooklyn and some parts of Queens, you will often hear people call them by their colloquial name “The Brettsters” – named after the New York City comedian Brett Davis after his love of the white classics.



In the fashion world Feiyue has gained prominent cult status, but it will always be their firmness, sense of contact with the ground, and the engagement of movement due to their minimalist design that make Feiyue an ultimate necessity for the urban walker and the island runner alike. And while others may try to break the mold, Feiyue has done that without even trying!

Get your Feiyues here.

[MasterKiller]

The orange ones are sweet.

[GeneChing]

Feiyue is mentioned at the end.

Retro Chinese Warrior sneakers revived as new street fashion icon
‘Hui Li’ shoes, once standard sporting footwear for Chinese athletes, are back on the streets again, looking cooler than ever
BY VIVIAN CHEN
13 OCT 2017


Chinese retro Warrior sneakers rebranded as WOS33

Warrior sneakers, or “Hui Li”, were so hip in China during the 60s and 70s that they were the equivalent of Yeezy Boosts of today. Like many other retro icons that have been revived to become cool again, the versatile white canvas sneakers with their signature red or blue leather panels and painted metal eyelets have been given a new lease on life.


“Hui Li” hits the streets once again, as WOS33.

The 70-year-old sneaker brand has renamed the kicks WOS33 – which stands for Warrior Ordinary Streetwear 33 – and has launched refined editions of its two most classic Warrior sneakers in its signature red and blue as a tribute to its rich heritage. The inner soles have been improved to enhance durability and versatility.


The sneakers are available in the brand’s signature red and blue.

WOS33 revives the classic models that were popular among Chinese basketball and volleyball players in the 80s, and which were “must-haves” for school gym classes back in the old days.

The brand’s popularity slowly waned in the 90s as more customers became attracted to foreign sportswear brands.

The sneakers are now available from the WO33 e-store. Los Angeles-based photographer Emanuele D’Angelo is tapped to shoot the launch campaign for the sneakers.

Warrior, however, is not the only Chinese brand to enjoy a revival. Feiyue – a brand of sneakers produced in Shanghai since the 1920s – has today gained a cult following and is worn by international stars such as Orlando Bloom, Emma Watson, and Poppy Delevingne.

We knew about Orlando Bloom, but not Emma Watson and Poppy Delevingne

[GeneChing]

Poppy Delevingne Has A Thing For This Under-$100 Wardrobe Staple
by Fawnia Soo Hoo July 13, 2015
It’s always cool to see a celebrity—with a vast clothing budget, no less—continuously repeat a favorite clothing item. It’s even more refreshing when the go-to wardrobe staple is a pair of $65 sneakers (yes, you read that correctly) worn by an über-posh Poppy Delevingne. The socialite-slash-model makes her her sporty white trainers work with everything—from jeans and a tank to a Valentino gown. (Like a pair of designer heels, but much less painful.) No wonder she always looks like she’s having the best time. Here, three ways to copy the British It-girl’s style.

WHITE SNEAKERS, THREE WAYS


Photo: Getty Images
WITH A PRINTED MAXI SKIRT
The trick to making white kicks work with an ultra-fem skirt? An elevated sweatshirt in a bright color and a relaxed, but luxe tote.


Photo: Getty Images
WITH FLARED JEANS
White sneakers obviously work with denim and a tank, but you can elevate the standard combo by opting for dressier flared jeans, a flouncy peplum top and a pair of movie-star sunglasses.


Photo: Getty Images
WITH AN ANKLE-GRAZING GOWN
If you’re trying to spruce sneakers up for a outdoor party, a flowy printed gown is a cool choice. Don't be afraid of an ankle-grazing hemline—that awkward length is so in—and go for a dainty cross-body bag to counter the casual kicks.

I confess. I didn't know who Poppy Delevigne was before searching her on the interwebz. She was in Kingsman: the Golden Circle, which I have yet to see. Now I know and I luv her because she rocks Feiyues.

[GeneChing]

This is from 2013, but I just stumbled across it.

See our ads around 1:27

[GeneChing]

Chinese company calls French firm ‘robbers’ for making Feiyue trainers
Durable sports shoe favoured by martial art exponents in China at the centre of international dispute that raises questions about intellectual property rights in an age of global commerce
PUBLISHED : Friday, 24 February, 2017, 6:01am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 28 February, 2017, 6:15pm
Lucy Christie
lucy.christie@scmp.com
http://twitter.com/yplucyc



When it comes to the sincerest form of flattery – imitation – Chinese companies are often considered to be the champions. From popular luxury handbags and Rolls-Royce cars to smartphones and even KFC fast food, there is little they won’t duplicate. Additionally, Chinese transliterations for famous Western brand names are trademarked in China, putting the original innovators in a bind when they want to sell in China.

Now, the tables may be turning, with one French business finding inspiration in a Chinese product and giving the design a sophisticated makeover. And not everyone in China is happy with the turn of events.


A modern Feiyue shoe.

Feiyue is a brand of sneaker that originated in Shanghai in the 1950s as humble footwear favoured by monks and martial arts students. Known for their durability, the plimsolls gained a cult following. At the 2008 Beijing Olympics, all martial arts performers in the opening ceremony wore Feiyue (which translates as “fly forward”). They are also the footwear of choice for secondary school students in PE lessons.
Patrice Bastian, a marketing and events manager, bought a pair of Feiyue for practising martial arts while he was living in Shanghai in 2005. He sensed that there could be a market for the shoes outside China. In the same way that Vans, Converse and Superga have evolved from humble beginnings to become youthful fashion statements, Bastian wanted to transform Feiyue into a hip must-have sports shoe for the French market.
So in 2006, he began working with a factory in China that manufactured the shoes. The following year, however, a factory representative told Bastian it could no longer continue to provide the small quantities his start-up required. Having poured his life savings into the business, Bastian was reluctant to give up. He asked if he could buy the brand registration to continue producing Feiyue independently through other factories in China and sell them in France. The factory manager consented, and Bastian went on to trademark the Feiyue name in France, and then the US.


French versions of the Feiyue come in a variety of colours and styles. Photo: Feiyue

Going it alone, the French shoe brand has grown exponentially and on a global scale. It has recently trademarked the Feiyue name in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan. Bastian has also harnessed social media and marketing to turn the shoe into a chic, sought-after label, with more than 250,000 likes on Facebook.


Traditional Feiyue shoes drying outside a Shaolin kung fu school dormitory in Henan province, China. Photo: Alamy

The popularity of Bastian’s products has not gone down well in China, however.
“They’re robbers,” says Liu Qinglong, manager of Shanghai Da Fu Rubber Co, speaking to the Post by phone from Shanghai. Liu says he has worked with Da Fu, the parent company of what is considered to be the original Feiyue manufacturer, Double Coin, since 1979. He claims the French company took advantage of China’s Feiyue during a period when the communist state was still grappling with capitalism and privatising state-owned assets.
“No one in China knew about commodity intellectual property rights at the time and it wasn’t until 2007-08 that we found out the French had registered the trademark,” Liu says.
Bastian, 45, co-founder and creative director of France’s Feiyue company, says: “It’s actually a legal issue and there are many things that we cannot control. The main issue is that many people are claiming the right to this brand in China. So it’s very difficult to work with one owner.
“I wanted to have a unified brand. My dream was to partner with the real Chinese owner,” he adds.
He says when he tried to acquire the rights, there seemed to be multiple factories in China producing similar styles of the Feiyue plimsoll, so it was difficult to identify the “original” manufacturer. The factory he started out working with was an affiliate of Double Coin, he says, but he was unaware of that at the time.


Feiyue shoes originated in Shanghai in the 1950s.

Ironically, if the Chinese company tries to sell its shoes in France, or in other markets where Bastian’s company has trademarked the products, customs officials could intercept them and declare them fakes – copies of the “authentic” French version.

continued next post

[GeneChing]

As long as the Chinese company has not registered its Feiyue mark in France, the French company can register it in France without getting anyone’s approval, and its registered mark is protected in France
DR LI YAHONG, THE UNIVERSITY OF HONG KONG

Chinese Feiyue in France are counterfeit, Bastian says. “Ultimately, it comes down to business. We have the brand registration. We’re very respectful of the legal issues. For us, it’s two very different products.”
Liu asserts that Da Fu rubber has legally registered the trademark in China, where the brand originated, and is the rightful owner. Still, he acknowledges that the French market is legally off-limits to the Chinese company.
“We have overseas Chinese and foreigners come to buy our shoes, but we don’t take overseas orders because we’re in a stand-off with the French,” he says.
Dr Li Yahong, an associate professor at the University of Hong Kong who specialises in intellectual property law, says that from a legal perspective a trademark is protected territorially, and on a first-to-file basis.
“As long as the Chinese company has not registered its Feiyue mark in France, the French company can register it in France without getting anyone’s approval, and its registered mark is protected in France,” she says.
The cross-border trademark issue has been in the spotlight recently after it was revealed that more than 225 Trump-related trademarks had been registered in China, based on the corporate brand name of US President Donald Trump. Chinese Trump trademarks range from condoms and toilets to pacemakers and a hotel. Representatives for Trump are fighting to have the Chinese trademarks dismissed.
It also emerged last week that at least 65 applications to use Trump’s daughter’s name “Ivanka” as a trademark have been submitted in China, for products including wallpaper and alcohol.
The issue of intellectual property rights in the case of the Feiyue brand – or brands – is further complicated by the fact that factories in Shanghai have recently started copying Bastian’s designs.
The original Feiyue plimsolls were produced in white or black. As Bastian has grown his company, he has introduced new designs and styles, such as blue canvas and patterned pairs. These are now being replicated in China. There is even a helpful article on eBay.com titled “How to identify fake Feiyue shoes”, with photos of the French versions – and the “designed in Paris” logo – included in it to help users differentiate between the “authentic” French ones and the “fakes”.

Splash of gold will save your soul #feiyue #shoenvy
Pictured : Fe Lo Court
Feiyue-shoes.com

The rise of online shopping makes matters even murkier, because in the global marketplace physical boundaries are no longer a barrier, and this raises a host of questions about the future of intellectual property rights.
Until such legalities are resolved, one factor in the race for online Feiyue sales could be pricing. Bastian’s shoes sell for upwards of €55 (HK$450), whereas the Chinese version of the shoes retail at between 20 and 60 yuan (HK$23 and HK$68).
Bastian says the difference in price largely reflects the quality, although there are other factors. “The quality is very, very different,” he says. Representatives of his company held discussions with many factories in China, each proposing drastically different prices. However, lower costs equated to lower quality when it came to the rubber, the glue, the canvas and the working conditions for employees. Bastian says he wasn’t prepared to compromise in his choice of manufacturer.
“In Europe or the US, you can’t provide something bad. There are a lot of things out of our control … the glue matters, the canvas, the rubber … all the chemicals that they can sometimes use in China that we can’t use [in France].
“Maybe you can’t see it, but actually in the end the quality is very different. Also, if you buy it in China, there is no taxation, no importation costs, and no transportation costs,” he says, further explaining the price differentiation.
By extension, the differences are why he feels he hasn’t just copied the Chinese product.
“For us, our shoes are original in our countries where the registration is there. It’s another version of the Chinese, I would say. For example, we have brand registration in the US. [Our] Feiyue in the US are the original ones, because we have the brand registration,” he insists.
Uniting the French and Chinese Feiyue brands could be one way around the t***** trademark and intellectual property problems. So despite current disagreements, could there be collaboration in the future? Bastian says he is open to the idea of a partnership, but Liu isn’t as keen.
“Why would we work with them? They just came to take our stuff away,” he says.

Additional reporting by Young Wang

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Shoe on the other foot

I guess this is chinoiserie for the new millennium.

[SteveLau]

To be honest, no shoe will fit for all wearing purposes. I recently realize my decades foot heel pain has been caused by insufficient heel support shoes. Feiyue brand shoes are thin sole ones. For MA training purpose, the shoes should have no less than half inch thick sole. And we should train on soft floor (covered with carpet or grassland) while wearing them.




Regards,

KC
Hong Kong

[GeneChing]

A 'Flying Leap' in Chinese branding
The world's second-largest economy has often struggled to gain prestige abroad. That looks as if it could finally change, Nathan VanderKlippe writes, with names such as Feiyue, a Shanghai shoe brand that went from humble beginnings to global success, breaking the mould


Feiyue shoes, a decades-old brand, has seen a revival in China after being imitated by a French company.
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE
SHANGHAI
PUBLISHED JULY 4, 2017
UPDATED NOVEMBER 12, 2017

Feiyue shoes began their long journey to an Orlando Bloom accoutrement as military footwear made by a tire factory at the time of China's Communist Revolution – green in colour, utilitarian in nature.

In the decades that followed, they switched colours to white, added a stylish blue-and-red double chevron and picked up a list of devoted customers: first a generation of northern Chinese, then the country's famed Shaolin monks and, finally, a fashion-loving Frenchman.

In the process, Feiyue became what remains, at least for now, a rarity: a Chinese product that has found success overseas – and rarer still, one that accuses foreigners of stealing its design.

It's not bad for a humble pair of sneakers that once sold for the modern equivalent of 94 cents. Even today, the cheapest pairs go for under $10.

But Feiyue – the name means "Flying Leap" – might just be pointing the way to something new for a country that, in its rapid ascent toward the world's second-largest economy, has gained financial power but often struggled to build prestige, its companies falling flat in their efforts to build products, services and brands that win global loyalty and acclaim.


Designer Amy Li prepares Feiyue sneakers for sale in Shanghai.
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE/THE GLOBE AND MAIL

While China now boasts 15 of the top 100 most valuable brands in the world, as judged by Millward Brown and WPP, most of that strength is domestic. In Interbrand's ranking of truly global brands with at least 30 per cent of revenue from outside their home region, only two Chinese companies appear near the bottom of the top 100: Huawei and Lenovo.

Still, there are signs Chinese companies are beginning to succeed globally on their own terms. Take Shenzhen-based drone-maker DJI, the undisputed champion of flying gizmos for photographers and filmmakers.

Meanwhile, the list of champions at home has grown much longer – and may provide a glimpse of the future.

A decade ago, the three top-selling companies in most Chinese consumer product categories were foreign. "Now, in literally every category a domestic company is in the top three," said Chris Reitermann, the current CEO of Ogilvy & Mather China.

In a decade or two, those will become better-known names, he said.

"Most people just say, 'Oh, there's no Chinese brands in the U.S. and very few in Europe, so there's no Chinese global brands.' There will be."


The roots of Feiyue sneakers lie in the Da Fu Rubber Product Factory, a tire maker founded in 1931. It began making rubber-soled shoes for military use in 1948, followed by street shoes a decade later.
GOU YIGE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

The desire for international success has come from the highest levels of the Chinese government, which has set overseas market-share targets as part of an ambitious Made in China 2025 program to invigorate its own companies.

"Pushing companies to succeed in export markets forces them to strengthen their competitiveness and build their own capacity to innovate," said Lance Noble, lead author of a lengthy report on the program for the European Union Chamber of Commerce in China. The Chamber has argued that Beijing's policy underscores the need for other countries to demand reciprocal access to the Chinese market.

Mr. Reitermann, however, is betting that Chinese companies will succeed in building a new reputation abroad. "Might be hard to believe," but in the future, Chinese brands are likely to conjure "innovation," he said. "I'm pretty sure that China in the next 10 years will be a world leader in electric cars, for example."

And, maybe, footwear.

The roots of Feiyue sneakers lie in the Da Fu Rubber Product Factory, a tire maker founded in 1931. It began making rubber-soled shoes for military use in 1948, followed by street a decade later. It eventually branded the sneakers Feiyue, whose "Flying Leap" name had particular resonance in 1958, at the outset of Chairman Mao's Great Leap Forward.

"The primary characteristic of Feiyue shoes was that they were comfortable to wear, with good cushioning and grip," said Liu Wangsheng, a general manager with the sneaker brand in Shanghai. "At that time, they were mostly worn by people learning kung fu or who loved sports, like running."

The advent of China's planned economy ensured their spread far and wide. At one point, Mr. Liu estimates, one in 10 people north of the Yangtze River wore Feiyue shoes. For a time, Rubber Shoe No. 1 Factory was the biggest in Southeast Asia. They became, and remain, the shoes worn by the famed martial-arts-focused Shaolin monks.


A warrior monk of the Shaolin Temple displays his Kung Fu skills while wearing Feiyue shoes at the Songshan Mountain.
CANCAN CHU/GETTY IMAGES

It was a rich history that appealed to Patrice Bastian, a fashion-loving Frenchman who discovered Feiyue in travels through Asia.

In 2006, he ordered 3,000 pairs of the sneakers and began selling them abroad. At the time, they "were really not fashionable shoes at all," Mr. Bastian said. But he went about building a company, taking the original silhouette and mixing it with gold, pink and other fresh designs. Feiyues once sold for pennies in China. The version Mr. Bastian created sells for upward of $80, has been photographed on celebrities and has had particular success in South Korea, whose consumers have become global trendsetters.

Over the past decade, Mr. Bastian said, the world has become "much more open to the Chinese arts when it comes to painting, sculpture, fashion and clothing and stuff like that."

How he got the shoes, however, has been contested for years. He paid for the overseas rights to the shoes, he said, and registered the design outside China. "The Chinese think that we stole the brand. This is not true," Mr. Bastian said. "They sold the brand to us."

"He didn't buy the rights. He didn't buy them at all," Mr. Liu responds. The Shuang Qian Group, which hold the Feiyue rights in China, took the case to a French court, spending $200,000 on the lawsuit. It lost. Mr. Liu has nonetheless called Mr. Bastian a "robber."

Whatever the case, Mr. Bastian did something few Chinese companies have accomplished. He popularized something distinctly Chinese. Websites and magazines published photos of actor Orlando Bloom and model Poppy Delevingne wearing the brand.

In 2010 alone, Mr. Bastian's company sold a million Feiyue pairs, before selling the brand in 2014 to BBC International LLC, a major footwear design and production company that works with marquee brands such as Polo Ralph Lauren, Teva, Cole Haan and Disney.


A group of men warm up for a game of soccer wearing Feiyue brand shoes at a field in Beijing.
GOU YIGE/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

All of the foreign attention has been good for business at the China Feiyue, too, whose sales are up 50 per cent this year. Chinese consumers are themselves increasingly willing to ditch foreign names for their domestic brands.

"Chinese people – they always in their heart will come back to something that belongs to themselves," said Jerry Tian, founder of Culture Matters, a company that has designed new lines of Feiyue shoes for Chinese consumers; the brand now has dozens of different sneakers. "People now think, 'Oh, maybe the quality has improved.' So we can try."

In May, Culture Matters opened a store in Xintiandi, a glitzy shopping mall in Shanghai, where on a recent day a woman who gave her surname as Xu bought a Feiyue pair for herself and another for her husband.

She had seen pictures of celebrities wearing the sneakers, but also liked the idea of getting something distinctly Chinese.

On a recent trip to Australia, she wore Chinese sneakers to a shopping mall, only to be "stopped and asked what I was wearing – and not only once. I was so surprised," she said. Buying Feiyue, she added, "does feel a bit like supporting our own national brand."

At another store in Shanghai, Italian graduate student Duccio Tripoli was buying his own pair. "It's cheap, it's comfortable, it's cool for the summer," he said.

Plus, it's a sneaker with a story.

In China, "they fake literally everything. And now something Chinese is being faked in Europe," Mr. Tripoli says. "It's kind of a nice revenge."

Having been involved with Feiyue shoes since 1995, it really fascinates me to read these reports now.

[GeneChing]

Here's more on the French poaching of Feiyues. This article is from last year, but it just got forwarded to me yesterday, and it's yet another excuse for me to plug our Feiyue shoes.

Carl Samson·February 24, 2017·4 min read
Chinese Company Furious After French Firm ‘Steals’ Iconic Martial Arts Sneaker



A Chinese company is furious over a French-owned business that allegedly copied their well-established sneaker brand.



Feiyue, which translates to “fly forward,” has been a household name for Chinese monks and martial arts students since the 1920s. In the 2008 Beijing Olympics, all martial artists in the opening ceremony wore Feiyue shoes. Moreover, they are also worn by secondary school students in gym class. The sneaker brand successfully captured the necessity for simplicity and durability that athletes everywhere required.

Those were the qualities that attracted Patrice Bastian, a marketing and events manager who bought a pair while learning martial arts in 2005.

But Bastian was not just another fanatic. He loved the product so much that he thought of bringing the brand to France.

He followed his ideal and worked with a Chinese manufacturer in 2006. However, in the following year, this manufacturer notified Bastian that they could no longer supply the numbers he needed.

Yet Bastian did not give up and requested to buy the brand registration so he could continue producing Feiyue shoes through other factories. The manufacturer’s manager agreed, so he went to trademark “Feiyue” in France and the United States. Since then, the brand has enjoyed their unprecedented global popularity:

“Bringing together all walks of life, from workers, Shaolin Monks to politicians, Feiyue crossed borders and generations to land in France in 2006. Without losing any of its authentic vintage charm, this lightweight canvas shoe then underwent a series of transformations. Its DNA gradually evolved, combining French and international influences.”



Apparently, the only place left unsupportive of Bastian’s brand is — you guessed it — China.

Liu Qinglong, manager of Shanghai Da Fu Rubber Co, told South China Morning Post:

“They’re robbers… No one in China knew about commodity intellectual property rights at the time and it wasn’t until 2007-08 that we found out the French had registered the trademark.”

Da Fu is the mother company of Double Coin, the original maker of Feiyue. According to Liu, he’s been working at the company since 1979.



As it turned out, Bastian had difficulty identifying Feiyue’s real owner at the time he tried to acquire rights:

“The main issue is that many people are claiming the right to this brand in China. So it’s very difficult to work with one owner. I wanted to have a unified brand. My dream was to partner with the real Chinese owner.”

For Dr. Li Yahong, a University of Hong Kong professor who specializes in intellectual property law, it boils down to territorial and firsthand application of the trademark:

“As long as the Chinese company has not registered its Feiyue mark in France, the French company can register it in France without getting anyone’s approval, and its registered mark is protected in France.”



This means when Chinese brand Feiyue is sold in France or anywhere else where Bastian registered the brand, they would be considered counterfeit. Bastian is, however, open to a partnership.

For Liu, it’s a difficult pill to swallow, “Why would we work with them? They just came to take our stuff away.”

[GeneChing]

How China’s Feiyue sneakers, shoes of Shaolin monks, are making a comeback
Traditionally the go-to footwear of Shaolin monks, Chinese Feiyue sneakers are seeing a resurgence thanks to Gen Z’s love of retro heritage brands
New stores have opened in Beijing as the Chinese brand looks to differentiate itself from separate Feiyue brands in France, the US and elsewhere
Jessica Rapp
Published: 11:15am, 23 Jun, 2019


A Shaolin kung fu student wearing Feiyue shoes. The sneakers are making a comeback in China as younger consumers seek out ‘Made in China’ heritage brands. Photo: Alamy
Chinese sneaker brand Feiyue started out providing the go-to footwear for Shaolin monks; the shoes were lightweight, supportive and cheap.

Fast forward nearly 70 years and the martial art accessory has become a fashionable must-have – and the cause of multiple copyright disagreements. For the past year and a half, Beijing resident AJ Donnelly and his business partner Nic Doering have been working with the Shanghai-based brand to bring it back to its humble roots.
Donnelly’s story starts like that of many who encounter Feiyue in Beijing: he stumbled upon the shoes when he started his martial arts training at the Shaolin Temple in Henan province in 2015.
The shoes, which were also a staple of the martial arts performers at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, are made using recycled rubber from the Shanghai Da Fu Rubber tire factory. Their Chinese name means “to leap” or “to fly over”, though its slogan “flying forward” will be more familiar to people in the West.
In 2016, Donnelly and Doering launched a company called Cultural Keys to help foreign students in China learn about traditional Chinese culture. It included martial arts programmes conducted in partnership with the Shaolin Temple and Feiyue shoes were part of the students’ training outfits. It soon became clear, however, that they would need a greater supply.
“All of the students who were with us were saying, ‘Wow, these shoes are so cool, they’re so hip, where can we get more?’” Donnelly says.
After discovering that few sports apparel stores in Beijing actually sold Feiyues, Donnelly contacted Da Fu to determine whether they could resell the footwear in their cultural centres in Beijing.


Shaolin Monks wearing Feiyue shoes demonstrating their skills to tourists outside their training temple. Photo: Shutterstock

“They basically said the same thing that the Shaolin Temple told us: they said, ‘We’d love to do this *[as] we don’t have easy access to orders from an international market, so if you could help us by stocking our shoes … we’d love to work with you,’” Donnelly says.
From there, Donnelly says he and his team opened a shop in Beijing called the CK Culture Boutique (now located in the Songzhuang Art District in Beijing’s Tongzhou district) where they sell the shoes, along with Chinese calligraphy, kung fu clothes and other cultural products.
Most of Donnelly’s customers are tourists who find the shop through TripAdvisor or Google. But the Feiyue shoe has also been making a comeback in the Chinese market thanks to a surge in interest in all things retro, especially among Gen Z consumers.
The company, buoyed by this interest in “Made in China” heritage brands, has expanded its range of the shoes, as well as its consumer engagement strategy.


Modern Feiyue sneakers.

“I’ve noticed wherever I go I see more and more young Chinese people wearing them on the subway, and just going down the streets,” Donnelly says. “But I see older people as well who just pop into the shop when they’re walking past who say, ‘Oh my gosh, I was wearing these when I was 10 years old and it’s amazing to see them here now.’ It’s great to hear both sides of that.”
The increasing popularity of Feiyues can sometimes pose challenges for Donnelly’s boutique. Da Fu makes around 150 styles of the shoes, but change out styles yearly depending on Chinese tastes.


Feiyue sneakers on display at the CK Culture Boutique in Beijing.

“The Chinese consumer likes very bright and colourful styles, even rainbow-coloured shoes, whereas we see the most popular ones [among Western shoppers] are the most basic … very simple. Grey mid tops with a black line going through them are a number-one bestseller for us, but they’re not popular with the Chinese shopper. So Feiyue will stop making them after a year.”
Sometimes the range of colourful styles on offer can be confusing for those unfamiliar with Feiyue’s complicated brand story.
In 2006, a French marketing and events manager living in Shanghai had the idea to create a hip, stylish culture around the shoe. He bought the brand registration from a manufacturer in China and trademarked the name to sell them in France. Since then, not only has the French brand given Feiyues an updated, fresh look, it has attracted Western celebrities like Orlando Bloom and Poppy Delevingne, who once told W Magazine that she “lived in” the trainers.


CK Culture Boutique in Beijing’s Tongzhou district.

The Feiyue name has also been trademarked in Australia, New Zealand, South Korea and Taiwan – all separate entities from Shanghai Da Fu Rubber and its subsidiary Double Coin, which took over manufacturing the shoes in 1979.

We serve a very specific group of customers. And when people come to us, whether it’s for classes or martial arts programmes, or for the shoes themselves, we always try and give as much of the story that we have
AJ Donnelly

There is also a US version of the sneaker company, headed by a Florida-based footwear firm called BBC International, which bought out the French brand in late 2014, according to new magazine Footwear News. In China, countless copies of both the Chinese and French versions of the Feiyue shoe are also available as the Chinese market still grapples with the protection of intellectual property rights.
For the moment, the Chinese Feiyue is carving out its own niche and recent years have seen the introduction of branded stores in Beijing.


Feiyue shoes drying outside the Shaolin Kung Fu school dormitory in Dengfeng city in Henan province. Photo: Alamy

Donnelly believes his company is helping ground the flying footwear brand.
“We serve a very specific group of customers,” Donnelly says, noting that his shop has one additional value for foreign travellers that they won’t find at Feiyue’s branded shops: its collection is available in extended sizes, up to a size 47. “And when people come to us, whether it’s for classes or martial arts programmes, or for the shoes themselves, we always try and give as much of the story that we have from our point of view.
“We’re not a tour company; we don’t talk about modern China and these kind of things. We always take everything back to its roots.”

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: How a kung fu favourite gained traction

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