The footwear industry is one of the pillar industries of the Wenzhou economy. In Wenzhou, the industry chain of the footwear industry is relatively complete, and the related products cover all areas required for the manufacture of shoe materials, shoe soles, shoe lines, packaging, shoe machines, and printing. The annual output value is about 70 billion yuan, accounting for annual GDP. Between 1\4 and 1\3 is a very important industry in Wenzhou.

However, in recent years, the raw material costs, export costs, and local costs of the footwear industry in Wenzhou have risen to a greater extent, resulting in increased competition within the industry and shrinking profit margins. Many shoe-making enterprises have therefore chosen to withdraw or move abroad.

Statistics show that in the peak period of shoe industry development, Wenzhou had more than 6,000 shoe factories and the current number has dropped to more than 2,000. The Wenzhou Economic and Trade Commission had previously conducted surveys on 15,521 small and medium-sized enterprises in 31 industrial towns and development zones. The results showed that companies that had suspended work, semi-cession, and bankruptcy accounted for 8.1% of the total number of surveys. One-third of them were shoe enterprises. . In other words, nearly 420 shoe companies have stopped working, half stopped or closed down.

Some local shoe companies in Wenzhou have chosen to go out and build factories. Aokang, Kangnai, Belle, Dongyi and other powerful shoe companies have already built industrial parks and production bases in Sichuan, Chongqing, Hebei and even foreign countries.

“Either it will be transformed and it will take the high-end route; or it will be transferred to move the factory to lower cost areas.” Xie Yufang, secretary general of Wenzhou Shoe Industry Association, once said.

Ao Kang Group Chairman Wang Zhenlu believes that although the number of shoe makers in Wenzhou has dropped significantly, the scale of many individual companies has increased. The shift of production lines from the coastal areas to the central and western regions is also an inevitable phenomenon in the process of industrial development.

In spite of this, statistics show that the investment scale of the shoe industry in Wenzhou has dropped significantly in recent years. Statistics show that in the first three quarters of 2009, Wenzhou shoe leather industry completed a total investment of 625 million yuan, down 45.8% over the same period of last year, the industry’s willingness to invest has not recovered following the recovery of production, but instead showed “one drop and one drop”. According to the different trends, the industry investment accounted for only 1.4% of the city's fixed assets investment above the limit, which was much lower than the proportion of output value.