I just started my own Children's Shoe company called KaZo shoes after being inspired by the children's shoes in China from our first adoption trip in 2003.
I fell in love with my baby on sight and like any shopping blooded mommy also the shoes. My daughter was happy, healthy and gorgeous, and the shoes were bright, playful and whimsical. I bought her 17 pairs of these unique shoes in all different sizes as I did not know if I would ever see such cute original designs for children's shoes again.
Well 18 months later with family in tow we returned to China for our second daughter, and to add a few more shoes to our collection.
Over the years the comments kept coming, in the park, at pre-school, in grocery store always the same..."where did you buy your daughters shoes?" I kept saying, "I should really import these shoes" they are so cute.
In November of 2007 I had an invitation from our mandarin teacher to join her and her family in china for a few weeks. My husbands busy season was in full swing, so if I wanted to go it would be by myself with my 3 and 4 year in tow. It was a great opportunity for my children to experience the full culture of their birth country so I jumped at the chance and headed to China with my kids in tow to join my friend and meet her family.
With shoes on my mind It only made sense while in China to do a little market research. I headed to the markets and in full Chinese tradition bartered over prices for children's shoes. I bought 60 pairs, threw them into a suitcase and headed home to test and see if all the accolades of the shoes would stand up to sales at my daughters pre-school.
The mom's loved the boots and shoes and bought most of my stock up. So now, what do I do? My instincts on these shoes and boots were proving correct. But how to proceed? All the manufactures from China who were on line wanted way to high a minimum order per style for a fist time venture. Besides my basement was not big enough to store 2000 - 3000 pairs of shoes!
I mulled this over and over......how was I was going to do this? On one of our last days in China while having breakfast in the hotel restaurant ( we were offered to stay with my friends family but it was very cold in the city we were in, and heat is very expensive to pay for in China, so we opted to have the amenities of home by staying in a hotel.)
I met an American Chinese business man who was interested in the story of why a Caucasian women with two Chinese girls was in this off the beaten path city. What were we doing here? I explained our visit with my friends family and casually said mentioned my idea about the children's shoes. This gentlemen said he knew nothing about shoes, but if I needed help with ground work like translations and shipping to give him a call. He passed me his card and left.
The next summer after mulling this over and over I decided I had to take the plunge and head back to China to start this shoe company. I decided in July of 2008 to take the plunge and was on a plane by myself to China in Sept.
My American Chinese contact was able to help with providing translators, but it was up to me to figure out and find the wholesalers and manufactures.
So after a week of fruitless searches.......I employed an old investigative trick....who would know this city better then anyone? Who would know where the pockets of shoe wholesalers would be? Who was easy and accessible to ask?
Yes........obvious right? Taxi drivers!
Once we started asking the taxi drivers where to find the wholesalers, I was driven to the Mecca of wholesalers. Bingo! Exactly what I wanted.
Once there I faced a whole new level of challenges of doing business in China, but needless to say, I was able to find and locate one supplier I could work with. Their factory was local, and they would pick me up at my hotel so I was able to visit the factory and ensure the operations were all above board.
There are many funny stories in between all this, (but for another article) , for now, I was able to place my order to start the first shipment of KaZo Shoes.
My website is
www.kazoshoes.ca I just launched a few weeks ago, so am looking to share the fun and functional shoes I have come to love!
This venture has given me hope of building my own company, while juggling the joys and trials of Motherhood. It has also provided an invaluable connection back to the birth land of my children.
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