In the 1990s, before the invasion of imported athletic shoes, Taiwan's athletic shoe market was divided into north and south, with China Strong the powerhouse of the north, while the south was the domain of Buffalo.
For over half a century Buffalo dominated southern Taiwan's shoe market. In the last couple years, like an old tree growing new branches, the company has expanded northward, reinvented itself as "New Buffalo," and is set to venture out of Taiwan into global markets.
As I enter New Buffalo's headquarters in Guiren Township, Tainan County, I am greeted by a boyish-looking Wei Baiqing who, despite being the second-generation head of the company, chooses to take the unassuming job title of special assistant to the president. On his feet are a pair of rose-red rubber clogs. It is striking to find this down-to-earth manner in a man of such high position.
That's right: Wei is wearing a pair of "Bush Shoes," the product that breathed new life into an old Taiwanese brand-Buffalo.
New Buffalo's Bush Shoes rocketed to popularity almost by accident when footwear became the focus of demonstrations in September 2007 for competing referendums for Taiwan's "entry" or "re-entry" into the United Nations.
The Democratic Progressive Party used the slogan "Wear Bush Shoes-Show China the Boot, Show Taiwan the Love" to call on Green-camp supporters to march in Bush Shoes, while the Kuomintang appealed to its followers to counter by wearing thoroughly Taiwanese blue-and-white flip-flops to symbolize the blue and white of the ROC flag.
New Buffalo benefited from this footwear fracas, because, as Wei says with a smile, "We make both blue-and-white flip-flops and Bush Shoes!"
It is Wei Baiqing's aspiration to preside over his empire with a spirit for high-tech R&D.
First shoes, then sauce
The mention of the Buffalo brand may make people think of satay sauce, which has for many years been made under the brand name of Bull Head Barbecue Sauce (both brands share the same Chinese name, Niu Tou Pai). This product is pretty much universally known in Taiwan, but few realize that Buffalo started making shoes before the sauce was made. One day Liu Laiqin, an old friend of Buffalo's founding president Wei Minghong, was planning to switch from selling noodles to selling satay sauce, and Wei generously shared his brand with Liu. Unexpectedly, the satay sauce became an overnight success. In contrast, nowadays people often forget that Buffalo is in fact a local brand of athletic shoes.
Wei Minghong started out as a retailer before gradually moving into the manufacturing side of the shoe industry. Mulling over the question of what brand name might capture the spirit of Taiwan, his thoughts turned to hard-working draft animals. North of the Zhuoshui River, most draft animals were water buffalo, while to the south they were mostly oxen. Living in Tainan, Wei thought of using the ox head as the company's brand, but those around him suggested that "ox" didn't sound good, since ticket scalpers are referred to colloquially as "oxen." He finally settled on the name Buffalo in 1952.
For flip-flop models such as Bad and Double Happiness, New Buffalo not only prints its logo on each pair, but also associates each model with a different story and individuality.
The original air-cushion shoe
From booties for babies to shoes for the elderly, from flip-flops and work boots to quality leather footwear-whatever kind of shoes you want, have seen or have worn, Buffalo had it all. And sticking to the local market was rather exceptional in the 1960s and 70s, an era of increasing exports of everyday goods.
Even more surprisingly, Buffalo is the world's originator of air-cushion shoes.
Back in 1983, Buffalo launched an inflatable air-cushion shoe, for which air can be pumped in to the right pressure for the wearer's bodyweight. Local basketball stars like Hong Junzhe and Zeng Zengqiu were hired to serve as spokesmen.
Sadly, most people worshipped imported goods back then, and after the launch of Buffalo's air cushion shoes, sales were disappointing. On top of this were problems like lack of ventilation and excessive humidity, making them uncomfortable for athletes to wear. Thus, Buffalo dropped the product and switched to soft, comfortable latex.
Despite originating the air cushion sole, Buffalo didn't profit much in the market. With the economy changing rapidly, foreign investments began pouring into Taiwan, and the NT dollar appreciated sharply against the US dollar. The local footwear industry, Buffalo included, began to decline.
In the late 80s, the stock market and lottery became all the rage, and employees became less willing to work in traditional industries. As their purchasing power rose, people began to buy imported shoes. Ironically, at that time, foreign brands such as Adidas, Nike and Puma were in fact made in Taiwan. "Even though the shoes came from the same factories, Buffalo brand shoes couldn't fetch half the price of imported brands," sighs Wei Baiqing.
Before long, shoe manufacturers flocked to mainland China in search of a new lease on life, but Wei Minghong held out after considerable vacillation, because he had little confidence in the quality of the mainland Chinese supply chain.
"Mainland Chinese products don't stand up to the test," says Wei Baiqing. When applying adhesives, for instance, different viscosities of glues are needed to join different shoe materials together sturdily. To economize, many shoe manufacturers in China didn't pay attention to these details. The result was that the shoes were fine for a short time, but after a while they would split open.
Another reason for not going to China was the responsibilities that he shouldered. "Buffalo had over 100 employees in Taiwan and business relationships with dozens of companies," says Wei Minghong, who cares deeply about personal ties and the interests of the local community. Employees were like family to him, and he wasn't about to turn his back on them.
Nineteen years ago, at the insistence of a family member, Buffalo chose to buck the trend by moving to South Africa. In a new and unfamiliar land, however, the company found itself taken advantage of by other Taiwanese who had already been there for some time. To make matters worse, the company then met with the rapid devaluation of the South African rand. Whereas the rand first traded with the NT dollar at 1:10, it soon fell to 1:5, and finally to 1:2.8. And importing raw materials from Taiwan for manufacture and sale in South Africa was equivalent to "paying a foot to sell a shoe." No longer able to take the losses, after five or six years Buffalo threw in the towel and went back to Taiwan.
High-tech shoe manufacturing
After half a century, with over 1000 models of shoes, Buffalo's products were a motley crew, with low brand recognition. Wei Minghong felt that if they continued that way, not drawing the attention of the younger generation in their designs or working to improve quality, then Buffalo would be driven out of business.
Five years ago, as he was approaching retirement, Wei Minghong made a final appeal to his son Wei Baiqing to take over company management.
Wei Baiqing, who had studied optoelectronics, worked in backlight panel R&D at the Southern Taiwan Science Park at the time. Unable to dismiss his father's appeal, he gave up his glamorous position as a high-salaried high-tech employee and returned home to enter the traditional shoemaking business. Even after taking over as boss, though, Wei Baiqing took the humble title of special assistant to the president. He says that his Christian family considers God the company chairman. And with his father serving as president, he, returning to assist his father, would naturally be special assistant to the president.
Wei Baiqing is cautious in running his empire. "For me, shoes are high-tech products that need to be researched," says Wei. In his eyes, shoe manufacturing is a high-tech industry filled with challenges and unlimited scope for innovation.
Wei explains that a good pair of shoes must possess three qualities: light weight, durability, and resistance to slippage.
Backed by associates at the Southern Taiwan Science Park and a group of National Cheng Kung University professors, Wei makes use of the results of his high tech R&D experience to refine the materials for his shoes, seeking out advanced materials to achieve better shock absorption, heat dispersion and heat resistance.
Buffalo's Bush Shoes, for instance, are made from 17 different composite materials. They are not only environmentally friendly and non-toxic, but are also highly flexible and refined in texture, waterproof, anti-slip, microbe-resistant, and lightweight. One shoe weighs about 160 grams, 20% lighter than similar shoes in the market. They are also remarkably resilient-no matter how you twist or bend them, they will immediately spring back to their original shape.
The Taiwan map on the soles shows that New Buffalo shoes are locally developed and made. They are genuine Taiwanese shoes.
Old brand, new ideas
Wei Baiqing has poured a great deal of effort into developing materials, so that Buffalo's products can be comfortable, durable and environmentally friendly.
He notes that there are three categories of environmentally friendly materials. The first are materials that naturally decompose into harmless compounds, the second are recyclable or reusable materials, and the third are those that can be incinerated without emitting toxins. The ethylene vinyl acetate (EVA) in Buffalo's shoes falls into the third category, and the fully recyclable thermoplastic elastomer (TPE) the company is developing, which belongs to the second category, is almost 95% complete.
"The life cycle of first category materials is impossible to control," says Wei, citing polyurethane as an example. Though PU itself is degradable, it is also not very durable, and if it's used in the wrong part of a shoe (such as the thong of a flip-flop), it can't be repaired if it breaks, and the entire pair may as well be tossed out. This is environmentally unfriendly.
Now Wei wants to increase the tensile strength of his shoes. Most shoes on the market can withstand stress of eight kilograms before tearing apart at the seams, but a material developed by Buffalo achieves 13 kg. Still, Wei is not satisfied. According to his research, it takes a peak tensile strength of 28 kg to stop shoes from tearing apart in a sudden incident, so that if you're on an outing, for example, and your shoe gets stuck in the mud, you don't have to worry about the shoe's uppers separating from the soles.
Since Wei Baiqing took charge of the company more than four years ago, Buffalo has gone through a major transformation.
Two years ago, Wei created a new trademark using the horns of a bull, dubbing it New Buffalo. And the shoes he recently developed bear a map of Taiwan on the soles. His aim was to move away from the old buffalo image and to stress that their shoes are fully Taiwanese-100% designed and made in Taiwan.
Storied flip-flops
Getting back to basics is the path Wei has sought after taking the reins of his father's business.
"Nowadays, the pursuit of complexity and 'coolness' is out," says Wei Baiqing. In these times of environmental awareness and LOHAS lifestyles, shoe styles demand simplicity, while at the same time being filled with verve and sentiment.
Take New Buffalo's most popular item-flip-flops: "There is a story behind every design of our flip-flops," says Wei. A storyteller, Wei imbues each pair with life and feeling. For instance, there's the Bad series which stresses courage, and the romantic Sleepless Princess, Cinderella Story and Love Lollipop series; there's even one with a knife-and-fork pattern, reminding people to eat breakfast. And the amusing "glow-in-the-dark" silicone flip-flops can glow for three minutes in the darkness.
The company's "Marital Bliss" flip-flops, with the characters for "Double Happiness" in white lettering against a red background, have even replaced leather shoes on the list of 12 traditional dowry items among many young people in central and southern Taiwan because of their cuteness and appeal.
But New Buffalo's Bush Shoes were a stroke of genius that helped the company surge once more toward popularity.
Similar products, inspired by the wooden clogs seen in the 19th-century paintings of Jean-Francois Millet, have long flooded the market, from Western name-brand shoes priced in the thousands of NT dollars per pair to mainland Chinese ones costing NT$100 a pair. But New Buffalo's "Bush Shoes" stand out.
At just over NT$200 a pair, these flip-flops are made from superior materials and boast well-designed patterns and quality printing. This is the Taiwanese bull spirit of New Buffalo.
Good shoes anyone can afford
Why call them Bush Shoes? Wei explains that they were going to call them "Holey Shoes" because of all the ventilation holes, but they needed to come up with a catchier name for marketing purposes. They considered naming them after Taiwanese baseball star Wang Chien-ming, but "Chien-ming" sounds too much like the Chinese for "low-life," so they tossed that idea. But later, former US president George W. Bush was photographed wearing Crocs, a similar style of shoe. So they were dubbed "Bush Shoes."
New Buffalo's Bush Shoes are less than half the price of the famous import, but come in a generous variety of styles and colors and are made with excellent quality materials. They're so lightweight that you can barely feel you have them on. They've sold like hotcakes since their launch, laying a solid foundation for the resurgence of New Buffalo.
Wei Baiqing has other plans in mind besides the storied flip-flops and Bush Shoes. Wooden clogs are among them.
"Wearing wooden clogs symbolizes wealth." Long ago, the dowry of a Taiwanese woman had to include a pair of red wooden clogs. The clip-clopping sound of clogs on the ground is a childhood memory of many Taiwanese people.
"The clip-clop sound is a cherished memory of my parents, and is a constant reminder that I should keep to the straight and narrow!" says Wei with sentiment. The sound of New Buffalo's clogs reminds people today of Taiwan's vanishing heritage.
New Buffalo also designs safe indoor footwear for the elderly, to help prevent falls. "If even one less elderly person falls per month, then what we invested in R&D is worth it," says Wei. Despite the high cost of R&D, he will not raise the price of the shoes. "I want to sell shoes that everyone can afford!"
Furthermore, New Buffalo carries out R&D in orthopedic shoes. Wei is currently collaborating with National Yang-Ming University professor Lo Ming-che, striving to bring the price of orthopedic shoes down to earth.
For flip-flop models such as Bad and Double Happiness, New Buffalo not only prints its logo on each pair, but also associates each model with a different story and individuality.
Our shoes, our path
Wei considers today's tough economic times, when everyone is expecting that the worst is yet to come, an excellent chance to increase market share.
"We hope to weather this economic winter with the persistence and hardiness of Taiwan's older generations," says Wei. He is grateful that Taiwan, despite its small size, has been able to nourish the growth of New Buffalo, and now he is determined to gradually go global from a Taiwanese base.
In January 2007, New Buffalo's athletic shoes became the first to win the Taiwan Excellence Award. Wei's hard work also won the endorsement of his father, filling him with pride. "Now what are you playing with?" Wei Minghong asks his son jokingly, his words revealing the mutual trust and support between the two generations.
"There's absolutely no reason Taiwanese products can't compete in global markets," says Wei Baiqing. The time has come for New Buffalo's years of R&D to start paying off. In the years to come, he avers, New Buffalo will embark into international markets on the strength of the quintessentially Taiwanese style of its flip-flops, and through constant innovation will capture consumers' hearts with a combination of high quality and reasonable prices. "Tell me, do you think New Buffalo has a chance?" asks Wei with an air of confidence.
In a street full of people sporting thong flip-flops, beach shoes and Bush Shoes, you can see some of New Buffalo's most popular footwear. Pictured at left is the Spring Scream concert in Kenting; above, Bush Shoes, canvas shoes and athletic shoes.
For flip-flop models such as Bad and Double Happiness, New Buffalo not only prints its logo on each pair, but also associates each model with a different story and individuality.
Buffalo, a half-century-old Taiwanese brand now in its second generation of management, is set to make a fresh start by expanding internationally.
For flip-flop models such as Bad and Double Happiness, New Buffalo not only prints its logo on each pair, but also associates each model with a different story and individuality.
