The first conversation I had with Mike, we somehow got on the subject of China and the weird food him and his team eat there and I asked him if he would share the experience with us. Being that he was heading to China a couple of weeks later, it was perfect timing!  I have not been yet myself, but cannot wait until I can. Like it or not, China is a HUGE part of this industry and outside of the amazing cultural elements I can only imagine, learning about where most US shoes come from will certainly be interesting….and of course leave it to Zappos peeps to do something good while they are there. I applaud them for working with a charity that supports children’s charities!! I can’t wait to see what Mike has for us next!! -Julia

Zappos Private Label Venture

Zappos.com started its first venture into a private label brand May, 2003. I had just started in April that year and remember the first brand Rsvp being launched as a moderate women’s dress shoe brand. The division did less than 700k in private label volume that year.   I remember going on a trip with Fred Mossler to Seattle and while at a Starbucks he asked me if I would consider heading up the private Label Division. Always up for a challenge, I agreed to do it.

The first thing we decided to do was to create brand identity. We cut the amount of brands from 18 to 6.  We decided to make the boxes look more professional and even have branding in the tissue paper. We wanted to offer items customers couldn’t find as easy such as wide calf boots and extended sizes. With all this we decided we needed to check out China as a source.

Our first trip was in October of 2004. Doing some research we found that there were over 2,000 shoe factories in the Dongguan area so we decided to check this area out first. We made some connections with some of the brands we did business with and set up some tours of Shoe factories, Tanneries and a last factory. We had a great trip and developed one of our biggest brands to date on that trip “Fitzwell”. Given the success of this trip, I went back and forth the following year about 8 times. We decided to bring newer buyers with us on each trip to have the “China Experience”. This involved going to the factories to see how the shoe manufacturing process works, touring tanneries and last factories too. We would even take a bus from Hong Kong to Houji which was about a 3 hour trip (yes we sang the Gilligan’s island theme on the way). Then came the first food experience…

THE FOOD…

We had heard so many different “stories” about the food. We decided to have lunch at a local restaurant the first time we went, which served snake meat, bee-hives and various other things I wouldn’t normally consider eating. We tried the snake meat, which wasn’t too bad since they seasoned it with spices and such. Each day during the trip we would try something “different” such as the turtle foot above with toe nails intact.   We now have a “rule” that the newer people have to try something like that on each trip. I have tried turtle feet, jellyfish, chicken feet, pigeon brains, pigeon, duck tongue,

duck brains, duck feet, pig face, snake meat, snake skin over veggies, goose intestines, fish vertebrae and centipede . With all of that I’ve only been to a Chinese hospital once; after 5 IV’s I’m more careful now. I passed on the dog meat opportunities since I’m a big dog lover.

GETTING BACK TO THE TRIPS

By the end of 2006 we had our China sources going pretty well and the 6 brands we had done, were all in the top level of brands. We were also doing close to 30 million dollars worth of private label business at the time. Since our business was growing we hired more people and decided to open an office in Dongguan.

With the person in the China office, we cut our travels to 2-4 times a year. We always check out each factory we do business with to make sure that the labor standards are being met and we meet the owners and managers of the factories as well.  Relationships are key in China as you need to build trust and understanding on both ends. We have built great relationships over the years because of the time and effort we have spent with them.  We try to take time on each trip to learn something new about the culture. We toured the Shanghai museum and learned so much that trip it was amazing. China has such a rich culture it’s truly amazing. Another rumor we heard was that the people didn’t care for Americans, which was the farthest from the truth. I have had great experiences each time I have been there, which is over 20 times now.  I have made many friends and look forward to seeing them each trip. I think when you travel you must have a positive attitude which people will respond to.  Currently our business has grown to over 50 million dollars worth of private label business and we have grown to 10 brands. We are now trying different countries as well, building on the strength of each to develop great product for our customers

We just got back from a 2 week trip in China and toured some amazing factories. We also participated in the Footwear Association Charity Event (FACE) which donates funds to children’s charities in China. It was heartwarming to see the progress this charity has provided for needy children. The website is: http://www.facefootwear.org/