Portland Will Become The "Silicon Valley" In The Shoe Industry.

Portland, Oregon, ushered in a group of leaders of the footwear industry in 10.

Two of the most well-known sports equipment giants.

and

9000 and 1200 employees were relocated in Oregon respectively. Adidas's design department even moved directly into the Portland park instead of Germany. Andemar, the sports equipment giant of Eastern Baltimore, also moved the shoe design headquarters to Portland in April 2015.

In addition, Lining and Anta set the US headquarters in Portland in 2007 and 2015. When the British brand entered the US market in Hi-Tec 2010, they also set up their headquarters in Portland; the rain shoes brand Bogs moved to Portland in 2011; Japan's brand MIZUNO expanded its business in Portland area in 2015; even Uganda's biggest sneaker brand Sseko also chose to be stationed in Portland.

This is not the main business that includes footwear outdoor sports brand Columbia (Columbia), which originated in Oregon.

According to the Portland development department, today, Oregon has more than 800 sports and outdoor company, and Matt Powell, a sports industry analyst at NPD Group, a market research firm, said: "the major brands have moved their headquarters to Portland, making the city a sacred place for their shoes."

Portland has a perfect eco industry for shoes.

Portland is not only the best sports equipment company in the world, but also breeds a number of new start-up companies. Most entrepreneurs have good backgrounds.

Emma Mcgilroy and Julia Parsley, partners of the women's start-up brand Wildfang, met at Nike.

Similar to McGill Roy's entrepreneurs are everywhere: former ADI general manager Scott Hamlin founded the clothing brand Looptworks with the core of waste material re-use; Nike digital planner Liz Valentin as co founder set up digital company Swift; Nike Shoes Development Researcher Ian Williams runs Portland's first shoe theme coffee shop Deadstock Coffee.

This is the advantage of Portland - the talents and ideas cultivated by big companies ensure the quality of teachers in Portland.

Matt Powell said: "human resources gathered around the world have become one of Portland's strengths."

In 2010, Jordan, the former design director of Portland, opened the Pensole Footwear Design Academy School of shoes design in Portland, which is known for the sports equipment giant to train outstanding talents.

PensoleFootwear Design Academy fostering the best practitioners for Portland

{page_break}

Since 2013, the State University of Portland has provided students with a certificate in sports and outdoor activities to help students make training in clothing management or sales.

Jennifer Noel, the project director, said: "nearly 75% of the students will choose to work in the shoe industry after receiving the project training."

In September 2015, University of Oregon opened a course called Sports Product Management, which is a director of the sports industry veteran Alan Schmidtdevridan, who has worked for nearly 30 years in Nike.

All these are also the guarantee of the best practitioners of industry in Portland.

In addition, the unique geographical location ensures that "Rose City" becomes the most ideal headquarters location for the shoe companies. "Portland has a very diverse climate, with hills and oceans, so that the company can develop various kinds of shoes technology."

Take the rain shoes brand Bogs as an example, the climate of Portland can help it test the performance of shoes in different weather conditions.

The geographical advantage is also reflected in Portland's northwestern part of the United States. It is a port city near the Pacific Ocean, which facilitates trade between the company and Asian countries.

The important thing is that Portland is highly exempt from taxation and has a strong sense of happiness. Portland ranked the eighth in the Milken Institute analysis of the national city scale.

Portland: the weather is good and the consumption is low. It is the second largest city in Northwest China after Seattle.

Of course, Portland is also facing some problems. Compared to the hustle and bustle of San Francisco and New York, slow paced Portland is not the best city for people who are used to the life of big cities.

For startups, the biggest problem here is capital shortage. "Portland has become a hotbed for entrepreneurs in the past 5 years, but there are not enough VC companies," he said.

However, some people have already solved this problem.

In 2014, Ian Lenbat, who came to Portland from Silicon Valley, set up an investment company Skyline Capital, to a certain extent, to fill the market gap.

Lining mentioned that he had marched into Portland in 2007. Unfortunately, it ended up in the end.

In February 2012, the Lining store in Portland cut off most of its employees, and even in 2013, it was confronted by a former employee's legal action.

Lining's failure in Portland obviously can not prevent Portland from becoming the "Silicon Valley" in the shoe industry.

In the end, Portland and Saint Martin did not have the Art Institute of Parsons, but there has been a continuous cultural system to attract and cultivate the brand of sports shoes.