Jan

20

Inspired by Vic's grandfather's advice "people will never stop wearing hats", I wonder if perhaps shoes will lose favor with people. This seems to have occurred to me. I used to love shoes and bought many. Now since I work mostly from home, a pair of socks or sleepers are what I wear the most. Then since I mostly live in warm climates, sandals are what I wear the most for outdoors. The next is sport shoes for working out. Formal leather shoes, which I have a bundle of, are rarely worn. What is going to happen 50 years from now?

Victor Niederhoffer comments:

This will be very bad for China. There is not one manufacturer of shoes left in America. They're all in China an India now. When I worked in Wilkes Barre 50 years ago as tennis pro, there were at least 30 shoe manufactures in the Scranton Valley alone, all of whom where members of the club. Alas, Poor Yorick. 

Leo Jia replies: 

Hi Vic,

Yes, that would be very bad for China. But I tend to think that it would also not be easy for the world either.

Simply looking at the iPad shares in the world, we can see how big an exaggeration are China's GDP numbers from its real economic contributions/benefits. In the iPad case, China records the full $275 while its real contribution is only $10. I presume the shoes industry (and all others) would be similar only in varying degrees, with many American and European brands taking the big shares.

Look from the other way, China's economy is not as big as we think it is.

Best,

Leo

Jim Sogi writes:

In Hawaii, everyone wears slippers and goes barefoot often. The feet get tough and the toes spread out in a more natural position which is wider. City feet get cramped in misshapen in the form of the latest fashion almost like Chinese foot binding. Native kids who have gone barefoot their whole lives have wide feet with space between their toes.

There is a new trend in running shoes towards a less structured shoe with a flexible sole that allows the foot to naturally flex during the running motion. Prior technology in running shoes put a large and rigid heel which forced a heel strike, which unintentionally caused greater impact on the knees. The flexible sole allows the foot arch to naturally flex and absorb the impact resulting in less impact to the knees and back. A popular shoe is the five toe design, similar to ancient Japanese toe socks. African runners run long distance barefoot.


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4 Comments so far

  1. David Jansen on January 21, 2012 10:16 pm

    No shoes?! Sure, that’s until you get a real bad case of plantar fasciitis. Then you will be screaming for shoes with arch support.

  2. SB7 on January 30, 2012 10:28 am

    There is not one manufacturer of shoes left in America. They’re all in China an India now.

    That will come as a surprise to Justin and Tony Lama and Red Wing and Quoddy and Allen Edmonds and Alden and Chippewa.

  3. Anon on January 30, 2012 2:31 pm

    There are some shoe manufacturers in the United States. If you’re talking dress shoes, Allen Edmonds are made in Wisconsin and Alden are made in Massachusetts.

  4. Scott on February 4, 2012 9:22 pm

    I think I’m going to import those toe socks from Japan to the U.S. Could start a trend.
    I do like the feel of walking around barefoot but there are some surfaces where it doesn’t work too well. These toe socks have a nice no slip rubber to them.

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