New Balance China has organized Hero Run event in Shanghai, which is a nonprofit running event. Provided to China Daily

Howard Chang, general manager of New Balance in China, has found the right fit

New Balance, a leading footwear manufacturer emphasizing quality and comfort, has become more popular among active Chinese in the past two years.

The brand credits Howard Chang, general manager of the company's China office, with its success in the market.

Since Chang joined New Balance in 2011, its sales in the country have grown five times and the number of its stores doubled.

Established in Boston, United States in 1906, New Balance was originally an orthopedic shoe manufacturer.

The company switched its focus to running shoes in 1938 and gradually developed into the second-largest brand in the sector in the US.

But it did not enjoy the same popularity on the Chinese mainland before 2011, Chang said.

"Its value and influence was underestimated," he said.

So Chang and his colleagues decided to change the company's development strategy.

Their big moves included reducing the product models and shrinking the inventory.

"We had too much information for the consumers to digest, and it was very difficult for them to make the right choice when they wanted to buy our shoes," Chang said. "So I just selected three major kinds of shoes to promote."

In addition, Chang and his team go over every order to control the inventory carefully.

Those decisions helped sales double last year. The company said it also opened 313 more stores in 2013.

Brand promotion is important to all companies, but Chang said he adopted a different strategy.

"Ads are important, but we are more focused on quality, so our brand relies more on word-of-mouth," he said.

Chang said shoes are "second skin for people and quality plays an important role".

"I believe that good shoes attract customers automatically," Chang said.

"We are one of the very few shoe companies that insists on making our shoes in Europe and the United States. We have very high expectations on the details," he said.

New Balance has actually destroyed hundreds of thousands shoes because they did not meet strict production standards.

"We emphasize quality and actually turn our shoes into art pieces," Chang said.

New Balance also set several price ranges for Chinese customers.

"The prices of our products range from 600 yuan ($100) to 1,500 yuan to meet the demands of consumers of different incomes," Chang said.

"The Chinese market is huge and we still have a lot of room to improve."

As New Balance highly values the Chinese market, Chang said all the newest designs will arrive as soon as they are produced in Europe.

Chang said he and his colleagues also put great effort into promoting sports on the Chinese mainland.

"Many young people do not yet participate in sports. But I realized that if the size of the athletic population grows, more people will come to buy our running shoes," Chang said.

So New Balance has organized running events and designed sports classes for other enterprises for the past few years.

"The results may not be obvious in a short time frame, but in the long-run they will give us great returns," Chang said.

zhuanti@chinadaily.com.cn

Helping promote sports among Chinese youth.

New Balance CEO and managers at the opening ceremony of the new store in Xidan, Beijing.

(China Daily 01/19/2014 page7)