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.

Welcome. My name is Sean Murphy and I’m the CEO of 3N2. This is my first blog, so fasten your seatbelts – there are sure to be blind curves, detours and bumps in the road.

The last thing I want to do is make this blog about me. However, for this first post, I’ll ask you to suffer through a little bit of my background so you can get to know my perspective and history with 3N2.

I grew up in Charlotte, NC (go Heels!) where I developed an early love for competitive sports, attended college at George Washington and Georgetown (go Hoyas!), and spent most of my working career as a business management consultant in the Washington DC, New York and Philadelphia areas.

In 2006, our President, Marty Graham, and myself were asked to take a look at an up-and-coming shoe company called 3N2. 3N2 had been around since 2001, had a large number of loyal customers, but also its share of business ups and downs. We immediately fell in love with 3N2 and its promise of becoming the go-to provider of footwear for softball and baseball athletes. In 2007, Marty and I left our consulting careers to take the reigns at 3N2, beginning what has been a long, strange and sometimes aggravating but always wonderful trip.

A little over a year ago, I moved to Winter Park, Florida to be at 3N2 headquarters full time. A year of commuting from DC was taking its toll and it was clear that being in the trenches with our tremendous staff in Florida was best for 3N2. The rest, as they say, is history.

So, enough about me. This blog is really about 3N2 and you.

Consider this blog an open invitation. Feel free to ask questions, make comments, even rant and rave. I’m here to provide answers and insight where I can. I also hope to learn about you. I’m eager to hear about your experiences with 3N2 and discover ways to better serve your needs. No question or comment is off limits, but I do reserve the right to delete messages that are off-topic, abusive or commercial in nature.

Over the course of the next few weeks I will be making the long, long journey to visit a few of our manufacturing partners in Asia. I hope to have pictures and stories for you soon. Stay tuned for tall tales from the Far East!

In the meantime, feel free to reach out.

~Sean