Born Outside: beyond the sneaker
The brand, founded between Italy and Dubai, ventures beyond the world of trainers for the first time with ‘Linea’, the first loafer in a collection that redefines the concept of imperfection.
Keep reading...In the 13th century, the port of Quanzhou was known as Zaiton and was one of the world’s largest ports: it was from there that silks, spices and ceramics set sail for the West. Eight hundred years later, from the same stretch of Fujian’s coastline, the basic concept remains unchanged: shoes stored in a bonded warehouse, sorted by an algorithm, delivered to Europe within 72 hours.
This is the Changli Smart Logistics Park, the Changli Group’s third venture. The name may mean little to us in these parts, but its track record speaks volumes. Changli is, first and foremost, an ODM: over thirty years of manufacturing for international brands — GEOX, Jack Wolfskin, Skechers, Diesel, Moon Boot, Head, Roberto Cavalli, to name but a few — across six categories, from outdoor to waterproof, from sports to children’s footwear.
At the helm of the group is Rebecca Lin, who grew up in a family of shoemakers and took over the company with the intention of transforming it. The second venture she has developed for the company is its own brand, Rebecca Lim’s: wellness footwear inspired, as the founder explains, by her mother’s feet – a teacher for forty years and, therefore, always on her feet. Three years of research into the biomechanics of the foot between 2014 and 2016, over a thousand tests, and a launch in 2017. Insoles inspired by reflexology from traditional Chinese medicine, vegan materials, and five Asian markets conquered without any advertising.
So the question is: why would a company that knows how to make shoes invest in industrial units? The answer lies in the industrial geography of Jinjiang: the world’s most comprehensive footwear district, yet one lacking logistics facilities of an adequate standard. The park — 118 acres of land, approximately 200,000 square metres of covered space — is classified as provincial-level logistics infrastructure and will be Quanzhou’s first customs-bonded park, managed in partnership with SF Express.
The figures quoted: AI-powered sorting of over 4,300 SKUs per hour, 99.98 per cent accuracy, 1.2 million pairs handled annually without disputes, blockchain traceability, eighteen European warehouses across France, Germany, the UK, Spain and Italy, and DDP service. All under one roof: a bonded warehouse, fulfilment for cross-border e-commerce, international transport, last-mile delivery and reverse logistics. For local footwear manufacturers, this means lower logistics costs and faster turnover of goods. For brands working with Changli, the promise is a reduction in supply chain costs of up to 40 per cent.
The direction is clear: Jinjiang is moving away from selling just production capacity and is starting to sell time. For thirty years, the district’s competitive advantage was built in the factory. Now it is measured in hours.
