The Mystery Of Life And The Way To Change Tide

The headquarters of Dafu leaping is 28, 138 lane, Tianshan Road, Shanghai, which is the two storefront of a residential downstairs in Tianzhi district. In the office on the first floor decorated with mahogany furniture, there are about twenty full-time employees. Take the Redwood staircase with the character "flying Feiyue" in block letters, and enter the two floor area as a small display warehouse through the double opening wooden doors with glass windows. There are about 1500 kinds of shoes on the shelves full of walls.

Every day, dealers who come to join and order will continue to flow around this two hundred square meter office. "When you are busy, you need to talk about five or six things a day." A staff member said that now the annual sales volume of Tai Fu leap is about 6 million to 7 million pairs, with sales exceeding 300 million yuan.

The old brand that emerged in 1960s is on fire again, and wants to upgrade itself into a national tide. In the past summer, Da Fu leaping launched a joint series with man Wei. You may have seen many young people in the street holding a pair of canvas slippers with golden double hooks -- the best selling single item "Iron Man".

Before returning to an eye-catching gesture, leaps and bounds passed through a short period of practice.

It became the focus last time, or the trademark dispute between France and France in 2008. It is not so much a dispute involving the rush to register trademarks abroad, rather than the legacy of Da Fu in a structural reform. Since its establishment in 1931, Dafu rubber factory has been in the different stages of private-owned, public private partnerships, local state and state owned enterprises in the wave of the times, and the fate of its brand leap is also sinking.

　　 How did the leap shoe rise and how did it become silent?

During the Great Leap Forward period, the demand for civilian release shoes increased, and the development of the leap shoes was also noted. In the peak period of 1980s, the annual output of rubber shoes in Dafu rubber factory reached 13 million 710 thousand pairs, with an annual export volume of 5 million 500 thousand pairs. It was once one of the largest shoe manufacturers in Southeast Asia. Red and blue hooks, yellow vulcanized bottoms and white canvas upper shoes have become the "national shoes" of a generation. In 1958, Dafu applied for a trademark to the Changning district government of Shanghai. The "leap" trademark was officially registered with the trade mark No. 27551.

According to the instructions of the higher authorities, Dafu is part of the tire production plant from 1974. Because of its high profit and simple technology, the tire gradually increased to the main business of Dafu, and the business of rubber shoes was marginalized. By 1998, only 4 joint factories were still producing rubber shoes, with an annual output not exceeding 500 thousand pairs, including big Bowen.

The big Bowen footwear industry was jointly established by Dafu Rubber General Factory and Shanghai stylistic Import & Export Co., Ltd. (later changed to Shanghai lancen Limited by Share Ltd) in 1992. "Da Fu wants rubber shoes business to move out." Recalls Liu Wangsheng, general manager of the current Sheng long shoe industry Co., who experienced the changes in the past year. 5 years later, after the withdrawal of Da Fu, O Hirofumi received the 306 shoemaker workers in Dafu. In exchange, Da Fu authorized O Hirofumi to use the "leap" trademark to 2013. This incident also led to the "big Bowen leap".

Tai Po Wen's leap shoes remain unchanged in classic style, but changed to the self application "Top One" Diamond logo. With a large wholesaler channel, "big Bowen leaps" at a low price for a large number of goods, and the "big Fu leap" almost disappeared in the market.

　 The origin of French "identity" of flying shoes

The first leap that Patrice Bastian saw in China was the "big leap" in the market at that time. Patrice Bastian is a sneakerhead from France. When he travels in China, he sees flying shoes from martial arts enthusiasts, and likes it as lightweight and practical.

In 2005, Patrice Bastian found big Bowen, applied for sales of leap shoes in Europe, began designing improved products, and jointly developed the European market with representatives from China. In the process, the two sides were in conflict, and then appeared in the EU and France. Finally, Patrice Bastian spent millions of dollars to buy the trademark rights leaps over the European Union and returned to France.

He worked in Emotion, a French marketing company, and has experience in event marketing for LV, Chanel and other fashion brands. Patrice Bastian is a good storytelling expert. Under his operation, the brand of flying lifestyle has injected the gene of Wushu culture from the mysterious East. The improved French version of the leap was simple and elegant, and the average price was raised to 50 euros. The physical store opened to the high-grade section of Champs Elysees street. More striking is a series of frontiers of marketing techniques, such as Celine, CASIO and other brand names, while sponsoring celebrities to bring goods, Orlando Bloom, Cara Delevingne, and other big picture photos are still circulating online.

"This is absolutely challenging the dominant position of Converse (CONVERSE) in the minds of young people." The French version of ELLE writes. After the Patrice Bastian, the "Feiyue" trademark was registered in 49 countries around the world.

Meanwhile, the big leap has just bottomed out.

　 Who should "leap" belong to?

Due to the requirements of the municipal planning, Dafu moved to the factory in early twenty-first Century, and the tire business was transferred to the Donghai tire factory under the Shanghai tire company. The rubber shoes business was handled by the Shenglong shoe industry Co., Ltd., and the rubber shoes business was almost stagnant. Due to poor management, Da Fu went out of business in 2005.

In order to lay off laid-off workers, Da Fu and Liu Yu Sheng, who were in charge of technical work at Dafu Rubber General Division, were asked to lead 8 employees to run the dragon shoe industry independently and take over the "leap" trademark which "almost nobody controls".

"We can use the" leap "trademark for compensation until December 31, 2023. But at that time, the legal consciousness was not strong enough, nor did it know that it should be notarized. Liu Wangsheng said. In 2009, the "leap" trademark was brought into the Donghai tire factory's parent company, the dual money group, and transferred to the power shoe industry in 2017.

After the closure of daafu, Liu Wangsheng and Liu Qinglong registered the new Dafu Rubber Co., Ltd., which is still private, and is still leaping from the production of dragon shoes. The current situation is that the shoe industry has not made shoes since 1990s, and consumers only know "big Bowen leap".

After the news of the French "flower coming out of the wall", new Da Fu immediately contacted the Bastian team to discuss the purchase of the trademark. Because trademarks are protected by region, this means that the leap can not be exported to overseas areas registered by Bastian team. After the negotiations broke down, Da Fu appealed to the French court. Unfortunately, the original big Bowen was shut down in 2006, and Da Fu missed the key evidence that the Bastian team allowed the export of big Bowen.

But Patrice Bastian has no intention of selling back to China. He is worried that China's crazy Shanzhai will affect the new image again. The French leap gave a wake-up call and an injection of excitement, and Da Fu had to consider how he could live better in the future.

　 Who has transformed the domestic goods leap?

"I can't beat a single hand. I came to see them at this time." According to Tian Bo, co-founder of Culture Matters (hereinafter referred to as CM), the improvement is a matter of time. He and Patrice Bastian had this idea at almost the same time.

Tian Bo has been in charge of global supply and marketing integration in fast fashion brand, and has opened a black label store. He likes to share the city life of Shanghai in his circle of friends. More than 10 years ago, when Tian Bo was chatting with a foreign friend, he talked about the representative fast fading brands in China.

So he thought of becoming a collection of old Chinese brands, and he told about the relationship between products and the city's history and culture. This is also the form of CM in the future. "If you don't know the city of Shanghai, what brand of products can make him think of Shanghai? We want to feel like ten things to do in Shanghai (the ten thing to do in Shanghai).

With industry experience, Tian Bo believed that the footwear brand was small and the entry threshold was high. In 2005, he and another co founder started a family to find shoes and old brands. To transform the brand, we must also involve changes in the production line, which are very conservative or cumbersome. Da Fu, who is the ultimate survivor, is willing to take a try. "It was a big loss when it was lost, and there is no way out now, so we can only think of a way to make shoes." Liu Wangsheng said.

Since then, CM has become the most special dealer in Tai Fu's leap. "Other distributors are mainly laying the channel and selling the goods. But we also cover design and development, and most importantly, brand and market functions.

The first batch of 6 improved versions of the trial water was listed at the end of 2007, and made on the basis of the classic 501 of the leap. The shoe was designed to be 45 degrees easier to wear. By the second improvement in 2009, the classic upgrade of Da Fu's leap 331 was basically finalized. The bottom lining adds a layer of sponge pads, which strengthens the "shit feeling" that young people like to say (meaning soles are soft and trample comfortably); canvas is improved, shoes are crisp; the fat toe is slightly pointed, and the upper foot is slender and delicate.

Li Yihui, CM's exclusive designer, said that the improvement is based on young people's visual requirements. "We improved the sense of lines in the subtle places, but we did not want to destroy the whole structure." Symbolic designs such as arc Baotou, shoe sole dots, climbing heels, and double hook patterns have been retained as the basic elements of most fashionable styles.

In addition to improving the classics, CM and Da Fu designed more than 30 fashion items in 2009. This innovation is the first time in history. By 2018, CM will have more than 150 new shoes in one year. Some of the new models are made by factory designers. They are hired by Dafu and are working in 4 supplier factories. Another part is original by CM designer, "for example, canvas slippers, because young people like to find feet, so they are developed." Li Yihui introduced.

After the improvement of technology, the price of the classic model of Tai Fu jumped from 35 yuan in 501 to 331 yuan in the last 331. Compared with the brand name and factory brand of the same price, Dafu quickly accumulated the barriers of scale production by virtue of the classic fund. Da Fu controls the cost price of vulcanized shoes at around 40 yuan, with a minimum of 3000 pairs, and sales of explosive materials usually start at several hundred thousand.

In addition to the low cost and high yield vulcanized shoes, CM and Dafu started producing cold sticky shoes, which is the most popular technology for footwear, especially high-end footwear, and is more suitable for mechanized production.

The first two stores of CM have been opened in Dongping, Changle Road and two quite literary and artistic districts. In order to reverse the image of "stalls", Tian Bo put CM stores in sections with good atmosphere and commercial centers. "The first small shop in Dongping road has a turnover of more than ten thousand a month." Liu Wangsheng did not expect that after CM, he could open hundreds of square meters of shops in the center of the sun and the moon and the Hongqiao world. In the form of collection shops, leaps are the biggest brands, and CM's own brand shoes, as well as Volley, Veja and other foreign brands.

So far, CM has more than twenty stores in Shanghai, with annual sales of about 60 million yuan, accounting for around 10% of the total. "We do not do much, but the Ping efficiency is relatively high. Ping efficiency below 7000 is considered a failure. 100 square meters of shops to do 700 thousand yuan, 50 square meters of shops to do 350 thousand yuan, below the standard is likely to drop off or shut down shop. Tian Bo told the first finance and economics YiMagazine.

　 Tai Fu makes the road of leaps and bounds.

CM's experiment gave Dafu the bottom of its transformation channel. Dafu gradually cancelled the wholesale channel, or asked wholesalers to transform into a retail mode. "More than 30 dealers were eliminated at once." "Now we all like to delegate to more than 20 year old young people," said Liu Qinglong, chairman of Tai Fu Rubber Co. Ltd.

From 2007 to 2011, Dafu only authorized the first tier cities and second tier provincial capital cities. The location of shops required high-end shopping malls and urban central roads, and opened to the whole country in 2015. Liu Qinglong set a new standard for the store, and changed to the door of the logo lamp box of "Da Fu leap", forbidding fake goods, fleeing goods and low prices. "Brand value is the way of thinking in recent years." As of June this year, there were more than 600 stores in the country and nearly 60 stores in Shanghai.

Chen Jie worked as a marketing manager in a software company. When he studied in Japan ten years ago, his students had been in France for over 300 yuan. "In my impression, is it not popular with mom and Dad, just tens of dollars?" When he returned to Shanghai, he often went through the CM shop when he was running at night. He was surprised to find that the flying display was quite modern. He tried to buy a pair of 70 yuan two generation classic improvement, found comfort is good, but also can buy enough large size.

After that, he went to South Korea to study, recommended the domestic leap to the Korean students, and helped them to do "reverse" purchasing. "Cheap anyway." He said that sometimes shoes are dirty and too lazy to wash, so he simply buys new ones. Now he will buy 3 double leaps a year, a pair of classic models, a pair of small white shoes, and a joint name.

In Chen Jie's impression, after 2016, the flagship store of Tmall jumped suddenly and reformed. That's why Dafu started to hand over online stores to professional operators. With a mature mode of operation, the flagship store is decorated by advertisements with advanced facial models, and it is just like a street style. Up to now, sales of e-commerce channels have accounted for 40% to 50% of the total sales.

Although the joint name has been popular for many years in the European and American fashion industry, when Disney Park entered China in 2015, it hoped to find some local brand cooperation, or few Chinese goods would accept it. But the French leap has already demonstrated. Under the guidance of CM, Da Fu leap and Disney launched the Star Wars joint series.

Tian Bo and others have set a high price of $188 for the Star Wars joint series, which has never been over 100 yuan before. "Think users will not accept, the result is very good response," Bai Bing "mono ten thousand double, just online 21 hours will be gone. Li Yihui recalls. The Star Wars series made the first appearance of the new image of the leap. It was not until 2018 that the joint name of domestic products became popular in China.

"Some Star Wars thought we were a French leap." Li Yihui said, "in fact, we were the first to publicize foreign words, and later sent signals through social media to let them know that this is a small design team in China, and made localization design for the leap."

The imitation of French leaping is indeed an early practice. She told the first finance and economics YiMagazine, but since 2009, the sound of French leaps has been fading away. "By the time we start the series of star wars, they haven't seen much new products." In 2014, the French leap was acquired by BBC International, an American Footwear Company, and Patrice Bastian withdrew from the company. First financial, YiMagazine tried to contact BBC International and the French leap, but did not receive a reply before the deadline.

Since then, the great Fu leap has launched several joint series with different brands such as Chao brand tokidoki, game everyday love elimination, Pepsi and millet products. However, the subsequent joint name is not entirely dominated by CM. "We will screen, some of them are not suitable." Tian Bo said that the rhythm of joint names also needs to be controlled, but the standard of Dafu is not so strict, and they have no right to interfere.

After all, CM is still a distributor. Even if we undertake many breakthroughs in brand promotion, we do not have enough strong organization system to fully accept the offer. Tian Bo plans to CM to take small and beautiful promotion routes, such as embedding activities through high net worth customers, or gathering communities on Instagram.

And Da Fu is not available for the time being. This is probably the historical characteristics of many old brands. They have accumulated a wealth of manufacturing experience, and they are still exploring the way of how to run the brand, enhance their original ability, and how to make the supply chain support the updated design.

In addition to CM owned direct shops and exclusive designers, the rest of the dealers ordered according to their own positioning and aesthetics in the popular version of the factory version. This makes it easy to sell hot plates, or to design less fashionable styles. They don't look like the version, but they look familiar.

Most of the orders depend on vulcanized shoes, and the capacity allocated to innovative products is limited. If there is no joint premium, the ceiling price of vulcanized shoes is not high, and other categories that can carry sophisticated technology need to be developed. "But the technical capability of the supply chain is still not keeping up, otherwise it can raise the next price segment to 200 to 300 yuan." Li Yihui said.

The operation level of online channel distributors is also uneven. Even if the authorized electricity supplier has only 30 or so, but one family will open many online stores, Liu Wangsheng admitted that there is no energy management now. Moreover, only the flagship store's operation company opened five or six stores. If you see Tmall, Taobao platform, leap, big leap, CM domestic products, Culture Matters flagship stores and other puzzled shop names, they actually come from different operators, and the styles of choosing shelves are also different, but the source of goods is Dafu.

Half of the leap is in the inertia of the old brand, so that the other half is already on shore. Tian Bo likened the current brand structure to Pyramid: "guiding the young people in the spire, but don't forget the tower and the tower, but the good part will go down to the whole pattern."

But trademark is still a problem. In order to prevent the use of trademark rights from being recovered, Da Fu registered the trademark of "Da Fu leap" in 2016 and added the word "Da Fu" to all shoes. They try to make consumers form the idea that Dafu has changed the tide.