Shoe-In episode featuring staff from Jones & Vining:
- Moon Tran, Vietnam Country Manager
- Tom Iredale, Senior VP of Sales & Marketing
Notes
- Vietnam manager
- since COVID, lots of work on fit
- most athletic brands importing mostly from Vietnam rather than China
- grew the model room in Vietnam, with three model makers
- customers want models completed in 24 hours
- 13 model makers in different locations, one in Europe, all following US standards
- some brands: “our fit is our IP”
- new products
- new companies: guide toward standard fit per their standards
- partnered with Volumental
- 50m foot scans across the globe
- can take average foot length in a particular region
- founders sometimes think they’re a particular size, make models in their own size, find it doesn’t fit
- sometimes don’t stay within standards
- data helps talk about it
- have a scanner, can scan their foot
- can’t just take a scan and use that as a last
- “T1” [tier one] = the factory producing
- current fit challenge
- consumer-driven, not a production quality issue
- “step-in comfort”
- everyone thinks they’re the perfect 7 or 6 &c.
- need to teach that there are differences between brands
- then remain consistent within your brand
- try to discourage brands from changing lasts dramatically
- technology
- before: CNC, humans touching lasts for heel and toe
- automate all finishing by machines 100%
- happened about ten years ago, but now 100% of their lasts
- no manual manipulations, completely milled on machines
- “new frontiers”
- “go where the brands are leading”
- “we keep finding [more] capacity in Vietnam”
- back to Indonesia? India?
- Indonesia expanding, opened 2015
- logistics challenges
- looking to open another in central Java
- everyone talking about India
- waiting for customer to tell them they have to be in India
- J&V strength in athletic
- India not a major player in athletic, but will be
- will be the next region
- have been using scanners to make custom lasts for particular athletes