ABSTRACT

In the sports footwear sector, until the late 1980s, a great deal of the production occurred in Taiwan, China, and in the Republic of Korea. At this point, manufacturing practices in the sector began to change. Of particular significance was the massive transfer of companies from Taiwan, China, to the mainland of China in the early 1990s. The Taiwanese footwear industry association estimates that by the end of 1991 about 400 of the network's 891 members had set up factories in China, employing approximately 100,000 workers. The production of athletic footwear is a labour-intensive process best considered as a vast sewing operation together with a number of supporting manufacturing systems. In the footwear area, multinational enterprises (MNEs) have, for the most part, a stable group of suppliers, some of whom have long-term and well-established relationships with the buyers. The role of MNE manufacturing personnel in the footwear supplier factories is largely settled.