The story
History
Feiyue's roots can be traced to the 1920s when cloth shoes were manufactured in Shanghai. In 1958, DaFu Rubber Company designed and produced a kind of civil shoe known as "Feiyue," a modification of the cloth shoes used by the Shaolin monks. They gained popularity during the 1930s for their robustness, flexibility, and comfort, which were considered essential requirements for martial arts and various forms of athletics. The shoes are a staple for almost all wushu practitioners and athletes in China, with the shoes being used by Shaolin monks and Kung Fu masters.
In 1963, using Feiyue and double arrow-labeled chevrons with "Feiyue track and field," the company became the best-selling shoe in China with an output of 1,616,000 pairs. By the 1980s, Feiyue sold about 4 million pairs yearly. With the opening up of China and the associated cultural and economic shifts, the sneaker began to lose prominence in China, and by the end of the 1990s, the brand started selling in bulk due to low demand. Once a highly regarded brand, by then, only elderly people and martial arts practitioners valued it as a cheap and durable brand. In 2003, Shanghai Shenglong relaunched the production of shoes.
In 2005, Patrice Bastian got together with a group of artists to change the brand name. In February 2006, they launched the first French-designed Feiyue Shoe collection.
The DaFu Rubber Company reorganized and sold the rights to Feiyue to the "Shuang Qian Group Co. Ltd," in 2009. That company leased manufacturing back to DaFu and another manufacturer, "Top One" (大博文).
In 2014, BBC International, the Boca Raton, Florida-based footwear firm, acquired the French Feiyue shoe company. Upon working with BBC, Feiyue's men's, women's, and children's collections were updated and globally introduced in Spring of 2015.
BBC has made a large new collection that builds on its existing brand. It uses high-quality materials like leather.
In 2015, BBC International Launched a collaboration with Feiyue and Peanuts for a limited-edition collection. Before BBC's acquisition deal in August 2014, Feiyue had major success in collaborations, including collections with Celine, André, Casio, Bonton, NSBQ, and more; and continues with other collaborations beginning with Peanuts.
The American Feiyue company collaborated in 2016 with the Solid & Striped clothing company, with textiles based on Solid & Striped designs.
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Distinctions between the original authentic Chinese and re-designed American versions
The original Chinese versions of the Feiyue shoes and the re-designed American versions have a number of differences. The differences include:
Sole
The sole of the Chinese Feiyue shoe contains reduced padding on the bottom of the shoe, which is considered desirable for martial arts activities. The sole of the French version has thicker padding on the bottom and is designed for more general-purpose use. The seal at the center of the sole is a green triangle on the Chinese Feiyue, while the marking is a red circle on the American version. However, recently the Chinese version manufactured by Da Fu has begun to use the American red circle; those manufactured by Top One retain the green triangle.
Canvas material
The canvas material of the Chinese Feiyue shoe is thin, resulting in a large range of ankle flexibility. The martial arts application requires a wide range of foot motions. The canvas material of the American version is much thicker.
Color
The original Chinese Feiyues originally came in only two colors, black and white, with a HI and LO version of each. The shoes were previously only available in a limited range of styles—simple stripes with some different colors. The range of colors and styles has now grown tremendously both under the American-owned company and the Chinese-owned one, with the BBC International brand offering a wide variety of colors and the Da Fu brand offering a "rainbow" set of shoes.
Style
The American version of the shoe offers a wide variety of fashion-forward choices for men, women, and kids. Consequently, collaborations with Céline, Agnès B, and Swarovski followed, as did fans, including Miranda Kerr, Reese Witherspoon, and Orlando Bloom. The Chinese version of the shoe, on the other hand, has around 150 different styles of the shoes catered toward Chinese fashion tastes.
From Wikipedia’s article on Feiyue, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.4