Published by Swiss James on 27 Oct 2009 at 01:13 pm
Dr Shoe Tuesday
Every tuesday here on ISpy we take a look into the fascinating world of footwear.
It’s a wild ride my friend, so come with me now, step into my weekly world of shoes….
This week I received a letter through the electronic mail.
Dear Dr Swiss
as we all know, the hot look that’s wowing the fashion world right now is the Shanghainese Street Sweeper.
I’ve got my faded blue coveralls, the hair full of cigarette ash and have grown my little fingernail to the required 3 inches. When it comes to the shoes though, I have hit a major snafu.
Me and Kate Moss were shopping down at Carrefour when we bought what we thought were genuine FeiYue shoes, and yet something doesn’t feel right with them. Have I bought fakes?
Help me Dr Swiss, you’re my only hope.
Mackers.
xx
Well Mackers- firstly, you’ve come to the right place (so that’s good news), however you have bought fakes (so that’s bad news). Do you know what though, when it comes to that funky oppressed Chinese peasant look- what could be more authentic than fakes? They’re probably rarer than the real thing too.
For the best selection of the real thing (including some one-off custom jobs) head down to Culture Matters on Dongping Lu (near Henghsan Lu- opposite Vargas Grill). For the fakes- head down to the docks and look for a guy with a wheelbarrow full of nail clippers, pan scrubbers, and shoes that say “FeiYin”.
Real uns down at Culture Matters
I knew it! this post is just another piece of ad which is not smarter than the ones sticked on wall of a lousy toilet in the outskirt of town!
i don’t think there are fake Fei Yue shoes — why bother to copy the shoes which are sold at a price of 20 RMB? are you sure you can make a copy with a lower price?
BTW, i got 2 pairs Fei Yue shoes myself hahahahaha
Jeffwho- you’re babbling like a crazy person. If the FeiYin ones aren’t a fake then what are they? A tribute? A cover version?
oh shooooooooooooooot!! those are Feiyin shoes indeed! yes you are right, they are a tribute and a cover version.
i should check mine tonight.
Good grief Jeffrey. I SAY GOOD GRIEF!
-JeffWho – you are a legend for many reasons…and clearly quite barking.
- A well timed post Swiss, as I just read today, some clever Cloggs is making a tidy sum marking up these bad boys from another Chinese trainer factory with some slick marketing:
http://www.ospop.com/
you can get them for about 99 of the Queen’s pence in China, or if you live in the US, order them online for 76 bucks…hmmmm.
baltic- Jeff’s great, you’d have met him if you were out on Saturday.
I’ll believe those chancers are making a tidy sum when I hear of anyone paying the full 76 bones for them.
swiss – indeed sir, indeed.
jeff – hi 5 buddy
haha thanks guys!
james your blog’s funny!
ninja low 5 pal!
Did you or did you not receive reader submissions sent from Vietnam?
Swiss, didn’t you have a pair of Feiyin, many moons ago?
Swiss, you need to be selling those things – $76 a pair – what? I am sure you could be selling them to the clueless in CA and making a pretty penny.
The markup is almost as bad as the price of British chocolate here in China…
Holy Shoot, at least, Feiyue had some je-ne-sais-quoi that made them a little bit funny. These OSPOP things just make me think of Ghostbusters’ gear.
I should take a look to the store on Hengshan Lu, I only went to Zunyi Lu factory store, but sizes there are a little bit limited for the non-classic (the grey you show and a beige model). I’ve considered chopping off my toes to fit my feet in, but it would have seriously damaged my dancing skills (alcohol is already making a pretty good job about that).
Lly, just cut the front out of the Feiyue and wear them like fancy sandals!
T- I cannot reveal the contents of any future shoe tuesdays. But yes, yes I did- and thanks.
Dingle- I cannot comment on that. But yes, yes I did.
Kim C – I think they have them specially made though, the character on the side of the ‘real’ ones are the symbol for electricity- but on these it’s the character for ‘work’ (工)
Lly – have you thought about cutting off your heels?
Dingle – that sort of “outside the box” thinking is why you make the big bucks
I used to wear FeiYues when I was practicing Wushu, and from what I understand, those probably aren’t “fakes”.
The shoes are so cheap to make that there’s a bunch of factories that make the same shoe, just with no label. The majority later get labeled “Feiyue”, but some end up as Feiyin, Feilong, or a couple others I’ve had over the years.
So I guess they’re “fake” in the sense that they don’t say Feiyue on the side, but it’s probably the exact same shoe.
@Jeffwho – There’s no rule or regulation that dictates that fakes and copies must be priced lower than the original product. For example, they probably saw how popular Fei Yue shoes are and decided to take advantage by making something similar at the same price.
No chopping toes or heels off, I think I’m gonna do it old chinese style and have my feet mashed up, just like the ladiezzzz.
@WoAi: thanks for the market strategy dude!
actually i wanted to mean “with a lower cost” but you know my broken English.
@Fink The insoles on the fakes are not nearly as comfortable as the originals, but the curvature of the outer soles appear to be identical.
@Lly Culture Matters at Dongping Lu does have larger sizes and several more design options than the Zunyi Lu store – they’ve even got the fancy hand-painted little baseball boots, although they only came in under 36, I think. But I’m a 40 and they had sizes up to about 45 on some styles.
I told you she was real!