CEO Blog

Wow. 36 hours of travel to get to Hong Kong. Long trip and even longer story (I won’t bore you with the details). HK is a city that everyone should visit at some point. East meets West in a beautiful landscape of water, skyscrapers and mountains. The best shopping in the world. A place to see new product developments, a place to people watch, a place to enjoy culinary delights and indulge in stories from locals and travelers from around the globe. HK is intriguing because of its past and obviously much speculation about its future. For years, it has been a transition point for many business people before they journey to the mainland to visit manufacturing facilities.

China has been a manufacturing hub for years and a shoe juggernaut for about twenty years. I’ve studied the history of shoe making and it is quite interesting to look at the last thirty years in which Asia has dominated the industry, including the shift from Taiwan and Korea to China and now to Indonesia, Vietnam and, to some degree, Cambodia and other comparatively less developed countries. Shoe manufacturing is transient. As shoe manufacturing countries develop economically over time, costing pressures result which force production to lesser-developed countries with lower cost bases.

Asia owns the shoe industry – especially the athletic footwear space. The stigma no longer exists of product in Asia being of poor quality. Asia has the best shoe production technology and capabilities in the world. Mainly a result of the decades of manufacturing. In 2007, China exported 8.17 billion pairs of shoes and accounted for over 70 percent of the global output for footwear.

3N2 has production partners in Asia but also in other parts of the world, as we prefer to diversify our manufacturing for the obvious benefits. 3N2 is fortunate enough to produce a majority of our shoes at one of the most renowned factories in Asia. This factory has received the highest marks for quality and delivery – year over year. So, how do retain such a partner? It’s all about relationships and growth potential.

I should be in mainland China soon and will post more. I also plan on posting a quick overview of our Momentum Trainer from the hotel here in HK. I just picked up a new Flip video camera and am eager to try it out.