China's Chuck Taylors

"Warrior" is a 75 year old shoe brand from Shanghai. Its original mission? To outfit China's athletes with a simple and lightweight canvas trainer.

Known in Chinese as "Hui Li" (å›žåŠ›), the brand was a footwear favorite in China from the 60s to the early 80s. Today, not so much. Most Chinese youth prefer to be seen in Nike or Adidas.

But these days, "Warrior" is out to score a new audience in the West by positioning itself as a sort of hipster trainer with a story to tell.

And let it be known, these are award-winning shoes. According to its China-based website, "Warrior" shoes have "successively won the State Silver Medal for Quality, the prize of the Chemical industry Ministry for high-quality products and the prize of Shanghai for products."

Booyah. Or, as they say in China, åŠ æ²¹!

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LLLLLL

I’m with you, Jewels Vern! But if the shoes test negative for lead and melamine I’d also want to a test for sulfur. Hopefully the shoe plant isn’t the same place they make drywall.
Bilsko

Brazil, too, sorta has its own version – although I don’t think the brand has 75 years of history. The Rainha (translates as Queen) brand has expanded its product line to include more modern looking shoes, but one of their basics are these indoor volleyball shoes that have a classic look:

http://goo.gl/PJH2
zio_donnie

hah, i am willing to bet that these will sell like crazy at least in Europe. it’s pure hipster bliss.

“historical” background you can explain to people who could not care less? check

cool avant guard type cred because noone knows the brand? check

soviet vintage aesthetic cred? check

ugly as hell? check

to the chinese manufacturer: slap them with a 150euro price tag and you are golden. do not make the mistake to sell those cheaply. no one will buy them. after all adidas and nike vintage sneakers cost almost as much as their high end sports sneakers and we still buy them.
Anonymous

Sorry Seyo, i completely disagree with you. Converse are some of the best and most healthy shoes on the market…. that is if, like me, you are not using them on cement. Arch-supports eliminate one of your body’s 3 main shock absorbers, the arch. The arch is an arch for that reason, to absorb shock by being able to flex. Arch-supports are horrible for your knees, back, etc. Walking on cement requires thicker soles, i agree, but not arch supports, raised heals (even mildly raised can be cause shortening of the Achilles tendon) or even this ‘support’ you are referring to when mentioning the canvas construction.

If you have weak ankles its because you walk around with shoes that are too ‘supportive’; your foot is frozen in place not able to move, pivot correctly, and adapt to the various terrains of the environment. This generally causes people to use their knees as an ankle joint by having to compensate for the ankles immobility.

pwned by a gait-dork
- TuesdayWeld
  
  I agree – I was warned against flat shoes like Converse in high school, wore “more supportive” shoes, and my arches, ankles, knees and hips were painful to the point of occasional limping for the better part of a year. I went back to my old favorites, the Converse low-top, and after some “settling in” (my body realigning) I have had few problems in the ensuing 20 years.
  
  I don’t wear them every day because I know repetitive motions don’t work for the body in the long term. I also don’t wear 4-inch heels every day, or a parka in July. Wear what works for you and if it doesn’t, switch. Not a hard concept to integrate.
  
  As an aside, I generally don’t have $60 (yes, I’ve seen Converse sold for $60) to buy the name brand, so I get fake ones from discount shoe chains for $24.99. The knockoffs are absolutely comparable to the name brand.
E to the M

Awesome. But which country will step up to the plate and make the bootleg version (assuming China is out of the running)?
Anonymous

Okay, I’ll say it.

WAAARIORS…. Come out and PLAAAY!
flwombat

Apparently I own this curious attraction to centrally-planned footwear, ‘cuz I’ve wanted a pair of Feiyue sneakers ever since Jesse Thorn talked about them:

http://putthison.com/post/241700638/feiyusneakers

They look like they’d make good “barefoot” running shoes.

Whether this makes me a (::shudder::) hipster I leave to you.
seyo

If these are anything like Converse’s Chucks, they are absolutely horrible shoes for just about anything but hanging out and looking cool in. Chucks are awful as athletic shoes, bad for your feet, ankles, knees and lower back. The soles are mushy and heavy, the insole is completely flat, and the canvas construction offers no support or stability to the ankle. They are prohibited in my gym, along with open toed shoes, because they actually CAUSE injuries.
- Anonymous
  
  It’s bad that your gym prohibits Chuck Taylors. They are actually preferred for some of the most important exercises like deadlifts, squats, and the olympic lifts where you want your foot flat on the ground with no support. Athletic shoes should actually be banned for those exercises. I actually use vans but the principle is the same: flat with little arch support.
  Of course, if you’re serious you should really get some proper boots but for the vast majority chucks or vans are fine.
- ValuedRug
  
  I wear chucks to work out in all the time. They especially make a great weight lifting shoe, because there is so little padding (when lifting heavy weights you need to transfer the force directly into the ground). Plus we’ve all learned that heel-striking is bad for you even with a giant thick foam piece, so when you run on the front part of your foot, ala Vibram Five Fingers, Chucks work fine.
Anonymous

@Endo New Balance still makes a few of their shoes in the states, including military-licensed models and their U.S. Post Office shoe:

http://www.nbwebexpress.com/information/madeinusa.asp
flwombat

Um, but then I actually followed the link to RTFA and the “Feiyue” shoes Jesse Thorn talks about look exactly like the “street kung fu” model of the “Warrior” model you linked to, albeit at a different price point.

And Jesse says “Warrior” is the translation of Feiyue, not that I’m inclined to believe his Chinese translations over Kristie Lu’s.

FWIW, searching Amazon for Feiyue will find you apparently identical sneakers for 1/3 the cost of the ones on warriorfootwear.com (linked from the article).
- Anonymous
  
  I’m pretty sure Feiyue and Huili(Warrior) are different brands, although they enjoy similar brand recognition for Chinese people (I think Warrior had an advantage).
  
  Currently Feiyue is the one with more international recognition where as Warrior is attempting to accomplish the same.
jitterbug

So… If Communism sucks so much, how did the Communist system manage to preside over the creation of so many long lasting, high quality products, like these and the Kalashnikov? Is “planned obsolescence” a capitalist concept, or a commie concept? Rhetorical question, of course.
- Pantograph
  
  Communism sucking leads to scarcity.
  Scarcity leads to human ingenuity and an appreciation of the value of durable goods that can be maintained by low tech means.
  
  Something to think about when you’re working towards the end of scarcity.
fontastique

So, if I wear some I can aspire to become a mindless drone too? Sign me up!
- Trent Hawkins
  
  were you trying to post in the “I-pad” thread?
Anonymous

Had a pair of these growing up in the early 80s. Bought another pair for about 30RMB in Shanghai. They’re only hideous if your outfit clashes, and they’re comfortable for walking long distances.
Jesse Thorn

Feiyue (“Warrior”) shoes have been available in the US for a long time. You can find them for about $15-20 from martial arts stores.
http://www.google.com/products?hl=en&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&hs=9kN&q=feiyue&oq=&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wf

They are pretty cool.
Anonymous

Moccasins?

Free USA!
Free Canada!
Free Australia!
Free New Zealand!
Cynical

Does the fact that “å›žå›ž” is the old way of writing “islam”, and that therefore these shoes can be seen as advertising “å›žåŠ›” “islam power” add or detract from their hipster appeal?
climbtree

What a fantastic footwear! To believe, such a spirit and feeling of being a powerful soldier in the army, is only such a few distances away.

what rocks about china is the brakish result of culture collision. china making hipster shoes isn’t cool at all
Xenu

Funny, I spend countless hours buying shoes because I refuse to buy anything made in China when it can be avoided.

This shoe — much like the real Chuck — is exact opposite of what I was looking for!
Anonymous

Just don’t give a pair to the Lakers’ Ron Artest. He already got plantar fascitis in both feet.
hutchfx

Doesn’t “booyah” mean “I don’t want it” in Mandarin?
Anonymous

I love the image of the dude smoking a cig with the trainers on the table, priceless.
Anonymous

heck yeah, jiayou!! (as the article writer said with “åŠ æ²¹”… well in mandarin anyway since this is about mainland china) … china is the new world! welcome! i want some chinese shoes that are proud to be made in china!!! wooot
Jeroen

Not the first communist sneakers to become hip:
The Hungarian brand Tisza is doing quite well in Europe.
My girlfriend bought a pair when she was studying in Budapest, easily her favorite pair of sneakers.
juhuacha

I’m amused at the fact that it “won the State Silver Medal for Quality” and that they think this will be a selling point for “The West.”
- ybfelix
  
  @èŠèŠ±èŒ¶ï¼šä¹Ÿè®¸å¯¹è¥¿æ–¹äººæ¥è¯´è¿™å°±å¬èµ·æ¥åˆ«æœ‰ä¸€ç•ªå¼‚å›½é£Žæƒ…å‘¢~
Anonymous

Some New Balance shoes are made in the U.S., but you have to check the labels to be sure.

Funny thing about Chucks now being made in China — they were sold for much cheaper when they were made in the U.S. In college, I bought new Chucks for $15 a pair. Now they’re $40.
Anonymous

Bu YAO means i dont want it. BUT I do want these shoes so… WO YAO!
Ernunnos

A commie product going on a marketing campaign to capture a new audience? That’s a triumph of capitalism, right there. I might even buy a pair to celebrate and encourage this development.
Anonymous

Surprisingly, hipster bliss is often good stuff.

“historical” background you can explain to people who could not care less?

Better than buying stuff with no history at all and trying to talk to interested people about nothing.

cool avant guard type cred because noone knows the brand?

Cool, because if everybody wore the same, wellknown stuff all the time, we’d all be very, very bored, clotheswise.

soviet vintage aesthetic cred?

That’s just a lovely aesthetic, a matter of taste and therefore per definition no worse than all other aesthetic fads, i.e. “American modern aesthetic cred”, “Victorian steampunk aesthetic cred” or whatever is in style at any given time.

ugly as hell?

Yeah, well. It’s a great big world, it takes all kinds and all that.
Drinking the well

It’s a shame that you have to pay me to be seen wearing those. The old ones look cooler.
Jewels Vern

I’ll wait for the test results for lead and melamine. And I’d like to see two shoes, one left and one right, correctly assembled before I decide whether I want any such thing.
- Endo
  
  You know “real” Chuck Taylors are made in China too, now.
  
  In fact, it’d be a challenge to go to a shoe store today and find a single sneaker that wasn’t made in east Asia.
Trent Hawkins

I think they will sell well if they market them right.

Just picture this:
You see a row of runners enter jogging from an alley,
cut to David Patrick Kelly sitting in an old car with three bottles on his fingers
*clink**clink*”Warriors, come out to play-i-ay.”

well… you know the rest.
- Casual_Casualty
  
  I’m glad I wasn’t the only one having that exact thought;]