China’s “Shoe Capital” reshapes new competitive advantages with whole-chain collaboration and brand going global
[Putian, November 11th] The four-day 2025 Putian Footwear Trade Fair and Putian Shoe Brand Supply and Demand Selection Fair concluded successfully today at the Putian City Convention and Exhibition Center. According to the organizing committee, the fair attracted more than 120 quality enterprises, with over 50,000 visitors. The total sales revenue online and offline exceeded 85 million yuan, with sales intentions exceeding 30 million yuan. Five projects were signed on the spot, with a total investment of over 568 million yuan. A set of practical and eye-catching data reflects the industrial orientation and market confidence of “winning with quality and increasing efficiency”.
The opening ceremony was held on November 8th. Fu Chaoyang, Secretary of the Putian Municipal Party Committee, and Dai Longcheng, Mayor of Putian City, attended the event. Chen Zhanguang, Vice Chairman of the China Leather Association, attended the meeting for guidance. Guo Guocheng, Deputy Mayor of Putian City, pointed out in his speech at the main forum that Putian’s footwear and clothing industry is currently in a critical window period for industrial transformation and upgrading. They insist on the integration of the “four chains” of the industrial chain, innovation chain, capital chain, and talent chain, accelerate the collaborative innovation with new materials, high-end equipment, and the digital economy, actively explore cross-border linkage with new formats such as events, trendy play, and IP, and continuously shape new industrial momentum.
The theme of this exhibition is “Unique Craftsmanship, Excellent Quality”. Six core exhibition areas are carefully planned: The Putian Shoe Culture Corridor systematically presents the historical context and contemporary temperament of “Putian Shoes“; The shoe and clothing brand and finished product exhibition area gathers new products in segmented tracks such as sports, leisure, function, and outdoor; The intelligent shoe machine equipment area centrally displays equipment such as aisle-free bottom pressing machines, automated cutting, robot sewing machines, flexible integrated forming lines, etc.; The artificial intelligence and software system area provides digital solutions such as AI design, CAD/ERP/MES, 3D printing, etc.; The shoe and clothing raw and auxiliary materials area gathers green materials, technical fabrics, innovative fly knitting and other source supplies; The supporting service area covers full-process services such as logistics, finance, intellectual property rights, etc. The six areas work together to build a complete ecosystem from “from creativity to manufacturing, from manufacturing to brand, from brand to market”.
During the exhibition, the “Putian Footwear Supply and Demand Integration Ecological Conference” was held concurrently, widely linking upstream and downstream resources of the industrial chain, realizing effective transformation from accurate matching to deep cooperation, and helping enterprises to speed up and improve quality, and win by quality. Centering on the “Double Eleven” consumption node, the organizer launched the e-commerce selection conference and live broadcast special session. The “Jiashibu” brand single live broadcast transaction amount broke through one million yuan, setting a new record for the brand’s own broadcast. The exhibition and the Galaxy Left Bank Music Festival were linked to launch the “Music + Consumption” scenario activities – holding a music festival ticket can receive a 50 yuan “Putian Shoes” exclusive voucher at the exhibition, further stimulating consumer vitality and brand attention.
Authoritative platforms have landed one after another, and innovative results have been released intensively. On the opening day, the unveiling ceremony of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology’s key cultivation pilot platform – the sports shoe pilot platform, the release of new products of Fujian Province’s textile and footwear in 2025, the launch of the “Putian Shoes·Travel the World” public account and the footwear industry chain investment signing were held. At the same time, awards were given to the winners of the Fujian Province Shoe Designer Vocational Skills Competition and the “Unique Craftsmanship, Excellent Quality” National Short Video Contest. A series of activities focus on technology supply, talent cultivation, and market transformation, further consolidating the institutional and platform support for industrial upgrading.
As the “Shoe Capital of China”, Putian’s shoe and clothing industry has an annual output value of about 150 billion yuan, gathering more than 4,000 shoe companies, more than 500,000 practitioners, leading or participating in the formulation of more than 20 national standards. It has formed a complete chain from new material research and development, intelligent equipment to finished product manufacturing, and brand operation. In 2025, the regional brand “Putian Shoes” was selected as the first batch of “China’s Consumer Famous Products”, and the industry’s influence and brand credibility continued to increase. This shoe fair is not only Putian’s “home court”, but also a shared platform for the national shoe industry: brands and manufacturing forces from Jinjiang, Wenzhou, Dongguan, Guangzhou, Chengdu and other places appeared on the same stage, in professional running shoes, trendy shoes, Children’s shoes, comfortable shoes, outdoor shoes and other sub-fields are docked to jointly shape the industry pattern of “national coordination and national progress”.
It is worth noting that the American “World Headlines” company has paid close attention to this expo, dispatched a reporting team for in-depth interviews; the person in charge of the China region Luo Fujin, Zheng Ruiming visited the site for observation and exchange, and communicated with many exhibitors, industry associations and e-commerce platforms on topics such as multilingual communication, brand overseas path, and international media endorsement. The continuous focus of overseas mainstream media helps to transform the industrial achievements and city business cards of the exhibition into globally understandable, searchable, and reusable brand assets, helping Chinese shoes to win higher popularity, recognition and reputation in the international market.
The shoe expo has released three clear signals with practical data, a systematic platform, and an open attitude:
Firstly, it anchors high-quality development with new productive forces, solidifies manufacturing strength through equipment upgrades, material iterations, and digital transformation;
Secondly, it enhances industry resilience through the deep integration of the “four chains”, achieving collaborative iteration from research and design to brand operation;
Thirdly, it expands growth space by taking brands overseas, turning product advantages into global discourse and long-term reputation with the help of authoritative media and international channels.
The organizers of the exhibition stated that they will continue to leverage their platform advantages, deeply cultivate the domestic market, expand the international map, and make the golden signboard of “China’s Shoe Capital·Putian” brighter and go further. Faced with new situations, new tracks, and new demands, Putian and colleagues in the national shoe industry will join hands to transform the “speed of manufacturing” into the “temperature of the brand”, turn the “stage volume” into the “long-term weight”, and step towards the high-end of the global value chain with a more confident and pragmatic attitude in a higher level of openness.
The copyright of this article belongs to the “World Mazu Culture Alliance“, and it has been translated into more than 20 languages worldwide, covering more than 50 countries and regions, demonstrating the global influence of Mazu culture. Readers from various countries can click the link below to read the corresponding language version of the Putian Footwear Trade Fair. Editor in charge: Lin Bingbin, Luo Fujin reporting from New York. Please indicate the source and retain the author information when reprinting. Thank you for your attention and support.
