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It looked like a "second spring" for Hong Kong's high-fashion avenue, which had been teetering on the brink as months of social unrest and the pandemic kept deep-pocketed fashion aficionados away. In a scene reminiscent of its heyday, the Chanel store on Canton Road in Tsim Sha Tsui drew an unusually large crowd of 100 people one evening in mid-May. "I rushed to the store as soon as I was off the clock," said public relations executive Stella Lau, determined not to miss the boat after talk on social media platforms suggested that the high-end French house was about to raise prices on some of its brands. She had set her sights on a handbag before the price hikes. Chanel said on May 13 it was upping prices globally on its iconic handbags and leather items from 5 to 17 percent. Two days later, prices rose in Hong Kong, following increases in Europe. The fashion house's Medium Classic Flap Bag, which went for HK$42,300 ($5,460) in late November, had a new price tag of HK$48,600 on its official website - an increase of nearly 15 percent. Chanel's luxury-brand peers also joined in the hike. Louis Vuitton, the biggest revenue driver for industry powerhouse LVMH, had raised prices of its products twice within two months, on March 4 and May 5. Celine, another French luxury house, said it had raised prices of leather goods up to 15 percent since May 28, while Italian luxury label Gucci had hiked its prices on June 1. Chanel gave a twofold explanation for the price adjustments - the coronavirus had pushed up the cost of raw materials, and it was necessary to avoid excessive price differentials between countries and regions. But industry analysts expressed doubts that the price hikes had anything to do with costs. "Prices of luxury brands do go up every year. They have to keep the prices of their products on a steady uptrend," said Dai Xianchi, associate professor at the Department of Marketing of the Chinese University of Hong Kong. He called it a normal operation for fashion labels to use consumers' price expectations to manipulate their desire to purchase. Most consumers roughly knew how much they would have to pay for the products before buying them. They also have so-called psychological gains when they found the prices they're paying now would be well below those in the days ahead. By the same token, price cuts would not lead to a run on luxury products, as the lower prices would lead customers to expect them to continue to drop in the future, Dai said. He added that consumer psychology behind luxury products is completely different from other categories of retail goods. "I don't think it's a strategy to attract consumers and boost sales, as the sales growth it brings during the period before price hikes is fairly small and cannot lift their full-year results," said Gao Ming, senior vice-president and managing director of luxury practice for Greater China at Ruder Finn, a global communication consultancy. The luxury fashion business has been buffeted by the pandemic amid lockdowns, a freeze on international travel and a worldwide economic recession. LVMH saw a 17 percent fall in sales in the first quarter of this year compared with a year ago, in line with forecast of a 10 to 20 percent drop. Britain's Burberry's comparable sales declined 27 percent in the first three months of the year, with about 60 percent of its global retail stores shuttered at the end of March. Bain & Company - one of the elite "Big Three" US management consultancies - expects global luxury sales to retreat by 20 to 35 percent this year. It sees the adverse impact going into next year. A barometer of sales However, some luxury brands are upbeat about business on the Chinese mainland, with revenues bouncing back. Louis Vuitton said its sales growth on the mainland stood at around 50 percent in early April. Mainlaind shoppers have been the gauge for the sales performance of luxury brands, accounting for 11 percent of global luxury spending in 2019. According to a survey by Ruder Finn conducted late last year, close to 70 percent of mainland consumers' spending on luxury goods at the time were made overseas, clinging to their belief in higher quality, while Hong Kong consumers' spending overseas took up 56 percent, taking advantage of lower prices. Jenny Hu, who works in the public sector, said she managed to buy a pair of leather shoes for 5,900 yuan ($840) in Guangzhou just before the price hike last month. "The saleslady at the store explained that all their factories in Italy had suspended operations, and she couldn't tell whether prices would go up. I believe what she said, which triggered my desire to spend to a certain extent," Hu said. She had thought of making a purchase through a daigou - an overseas shopper who buys foreign products for mainland customers. But she gave up the idea after realizing it would be quite troublesome, considering that many stores in the region were still closed, and transportation time could be longer. Since mainland consumers can no longer go overseas for luxury items amid global travel curbs, the foot traffic in mainland shops is likely to increase. Burberry CEO Marco Gobbetti said in May the company's sales growth on the mainland had surpassed last year's levels, benefiting from the accumulated spending pool of consumers who used to shop overseas. "We've seen a strong performance in our online business in China and South Korea, growing by double digits over last year's, and a significant traction in handbags and small leather goods across a range of styles. The sales trends in both markets have continued to improve, with China in particular seeing double-digit growth in recent weeks," Gobbetti said. To better engage Chinese customers, many luxury labels have launched online campaigns tailored for the Chinese market, such as livestreaming programs. Gobbetti said he expects the pandemic to trigger a direct-to-consumer shift. Thus, Burberry will continue to focus on digital sales in the months ahead. It will open a store in Shenzhen later this year, powered by Tencent technology, blending social media and retail to create digital and physical spaces. Luxury brands downsize Ruder Finn's survey revealed that both mainland and Hong Kong consumers are feeling more comfortable shopping online, compared with a year ago. Hong Kong consumers prefer buying through official websites, while e-commerce platforms cater mainly to online purchases of luxury goods on the mainland. "For the time being, e-commerce can be just one of the distribution channels for the luxury fashion industry, playing a complementary role," said Ruder Finn's Gao. Personalized and value-added customer experience, he said, is always important for the sector, and no luxury brand can rely solely on online sales. In Hong Kong - one of mainland consumers' favorite luxury shopping destinations - luxury brands like Prada, Valentino and Tiffany are downsizing their presence in the city because of high commercial rents, while others are re-evaluating their operations. Han Zhi, director of retail at Swire Properties, said stores of Dior and Loewe are being renovated and will reopen with more space at Pacific Place in Admiralty. He said Swire - one of Hong Kong's biggest landlords - continues to see stable demand at Pacific Place from a diverse range of local and international tenants.

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Gap Inc has entered into a 10-year deal with rapper and fashion designer Kanye West to create a Yeezy line of clothing, both parties said on Friday, sending shares of the apparel retailer soaring 42%. Aimed at young shoppers, the Yeezy-Gap line, which will offer items such as hoodies, basics, T-shirts and joggers, is expected to appear in Gap stores and on Gap.com in 2021, the two parties said. West will keep sole ownership of the Yeezy brand. Financial details were not disclosed, but Gap said Yeezy would receive royalties and potential equity based on sales results. Yeezy said the brand is valued at $2.9 billion. German sportswear company Adidas also partners with West, selling Yeezy footwear designed by West. As a teen, West, 43, worked at a Gap store in the Chicago area. "We are excited to welcome Kanye back to the Gap family," said Mark Breitbard, the Gap brand global head, describing West as "a creative visionary, building on the aesthetic and success of his Yeezy brand" with the new Gap line. A Gap spokeswoman said the deal "is an example of leveraging the brand power that Gap has and thinking in a new way about how we can introduce the brand to new customers, new audiences," she said. The news of the collaboration, announced through the rapper's Twitter account, got the brands trending on the social media platform and sent shares of Gap to its highest since early March before the pandemic battered the industry. San Francisco-based Gap, which owns Banana Republic, Athleta and Old Navy, was among non-essential retailers forced to temporarily close stores to curb the spread of coronavirus. Gap, which operates nearly 2,800 stores in North America, recently withdrew its full-year targets, suspended its dividend, furloughed employees and has seen its stock fall over 40% so far this year. (Reporting by Melissa Fares in New York; Additional reporting by Aishwarya Venugopal in Bengaluru; Editing by Cynthia Osterman and Shailesh Kuber)

Golden monkey science and technology industrial park production workshop is brightly lit, the introduction of the first half of last year "DESMA" continuous injection of intelligent production line, semi-automatic robotic arm is high-speed rotation, the original production line of 20 people now as long as 15 people, the efficiency is also improved by 30%. Since its establishment 69 years ago, golden monkey group has won dozens of honors, including national leading enterprise in manufacturing industry, top 500 manufacturing enterprises in China, top 500 private enterprises in China, and top 100 light industrial enterprises in China.However, it is not satisfied, but continue to work hard to produce shoes that are tens of centimeters long and several centimeters wide. All the way through, the market has changed again, artisans can not lose the golden sign.From the first 17 shoemakers to this day, each golden monkey has worn the quality of the product into a callus in the palm of his hand. And these "old craftsmen" who are dedicated to quality have made the best footnote to the craftsman spirit of the new era -- we should make changes in a steady way and make innovations in quality.

At the military parade to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People`s Republic of China, the flag-raising soldiers, standing soldiers, the United Military Orchestra, the air flag echelon, the three military honor guards, the female soldiers` team, the female militia`s team, the army aviation team, and the capital march parade the national flag Nearly 20,000 pairs of shoes and boots on the feet of the participants such as the Fang team and the mass choir were developed and produced by JINHOU GROUP CO. In addition,JINHOU GROUP CO also used the general shoes, school captain shoes, and combat boots that have been installed in previous years as the leading command team, civilian team, tank team, amphibious assault team, self-propelled artillery team, rocket army team. Etc. to provide services. In this parade,JINHOU GROUP CO provided more than 28,000 pairs of various military shoes. On the National Day, when a team wearing JINHOU leather shoes appeared on the big screen, the JINHOU employees were very excited. Since receiving the task of making parade shoes and boots,JINHOU GROUP CO has selected 60 outstanding technicians to enter the parade village in batches and conduct field-by-person measurement. "The 900 female soldiers and the female militia have different feet and calves." Zhang Lili, director of the Women's Shoes Design Office of JINHOU GROUP CO,remembered the process of entering the parade village to measure the legs of the parade members. This means that the parade boots cannot be mass-produced, and can only be designed and manufactured for each individual. The shoes of more than 3,000 people should be customized one-to-one, and the time for the design, measurement and production of the golden monkey is less than three months. Different from ordinary people walking, the person being examined is the heel of the heel. The height of the heel of the shoe must be shorter than that of the daily dress shoes, which is conducive to the press of the toes. The use of the slope of the zipper is also very particular, and it must be designed to rub hard during walking. The smallest position; after a period of training, the height of some officers and soldiers will change, and some soldiers can have a difference of about 10 cm between the left and right legs. At this time, the height of the heel and the height of the boot must be adjusted to achieve the effect of visual unity; in order to resist Grinding, the JINHOU replaces the iron palm with the triangular steel nails of his own design, directly embedded in the heel of two centimeters, to ensure that the boots are both sonic and firm, reliable, non-slip and wear-resistant when landing. The employees of JINHOU GROUP CO couldn't remember clearly, how many problems they had overcome, they could not be counted, and how many sleepless nights they had survived. At 4 a.m. on September 15, the night was deep. When the last big truck full of "parade shoes" drove out of the gate of the JINHOU shoe industry, Liu Fulin, who worked hard for half a year, took a long breath. On October 1st, the 70th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, the National Day parade, Yang Guowei,Zhuangjunwei's party team wearing military boots clang, and the momentum is like a rainbow. At that moment, every designer and producer of military shoes and boots was extremely proud.

Recently, the ministry of industry and information technology has carried out the review of the national industrial design center, and the industrial design center of GDMK GROUP and triangle tire co., ltd. has successfully passed the review.Up to now, the number of industrial design centers at or above the municipal level in the city has reached 81, and there are 4 national design centers, ranking among the top in the province. Since the establishment of industrial design center of GDMK GROUP in 2008, nearly 200 footwear and leather designers have gathered in Weihai and Dongguan sub centers, where thousands of innovative products are born every year. Phantom, New Silk Road, yijuchunshui and other works have won national design awards. The new combat boots designed in 2018 also won the gold medal of the second "provincial governor's Cup" industrial design competition of Shandong Province. At present, the design center has purchased last management equipment, 3D last bottom scanner and other new equipment, realized large-scale personalized customization, completed and industrialized 37 projects, obtained 37 patents, participated in the formulation of 3 national industry standards and 4 military product standards, and led the industry's technological innovation. Industrial design is not only an important guide for industrial transformation and upgrading, but also an important starting point for accelerating the transformation of new and old driving forces and promoting the high-quality development of manufacturing industry. According to the actual situation of our city, the Municipal Bureau of industry and information technology has formulated the implementation opinions on accelerating the development of industrial design industry to provide policy support for improving the design capacity of enterprises, and set up special support funds in the field of industrial design to guide enterprises to increase design investment and enhance innovation capacity. This year, 24 industrial design projects and platforms have been supported, with the support fund of nearly 3.6 million yuan. In the aspect of industrial design platform construction, the city has established the echelon cultivation mechanism of national, provincial and municipal industrial design centers to guide enterprises to build industrial design centers. Up to now, the number of industrial design centers above municipal level has reached 81, including 14 provincial-level centers, and an industrial design industry system of "three-level linkage" of parks, platforms and enterprises has been built. According to the use characteristics of different regions in the world and the personalized needs of different customers, triangle tire design center has taken the lead in successfully designing and developing high-end tire products such as engineering radial tire and giant tire, snow and ice special tire, green tire, fire-resistant tire, etc. At present, delta tire is implementing the project of "key technology breakthrough research and industrialization of radial tire", which has been selected as the key project of new and old energy transformation of provincial development and Reform Commission in 2019. Weihai Industrial Design Association, led by Deschamps group, has gathered excellent design forces from all sides, including the city's design platform, colleges and universities, etc. the first batch of members has reached more than 70, which has built a good platform for promoting industrial design exchange and cooperation.

On April 23, 2019, the all-china federation of trade unions solemnly commended the 2019 national May Day labor award and the all-china workers' vanguard. GDMK group won the "national May Day labor award", becoming the only enterprise in weihai to win this award. In order to commend the advanced, May 31, golden monkey group co., LTD. "national May Day labor certificate" award ceremony was held in the GDMK group hotel. Acftu finance &trade textile tobacco Wang Shuangqing, vice President of the union, the national federation of trade unions tobacco trade union work light, vice minister of finance &trade textile Yang Dongguo, China light industry federation, chairman of the standing committee of the party committee, vice President, China leather association yu-zhong li, weihai torch high-tech industrial development zone of secretary of the working committee, management committee director liu wei, weihai city federation of trade unions vice chairman Liu Debai attended the ceremony. Yang dongguo read out the acftu's commendation decision, li yuzhong and wang shuangqing respectively speech. It is understood that the national May Day labor award is a glorious title awarded by the all-china federation of trade unions to enterprises, institutions, government bodies and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to the building of socialism with Chinese characteristics. It is one of the highest awards for the Chinese working class. A total of 92 enterprises and institutions were awarded this award, among which weihai GDMK group was the only one to win this award. This GDMK group stands out, is the national federation of trade unions and all walks of life to the GDMK group adhere to technical innovation, pay attention to brand forging, building a harmonious enterprise and other work highly affirmed. In recent years, golden monkey group adheres to technological innovation and promotes the improvement of workers' skills and quality. Enterprise technology centers recognized by the company with the national and the national industrial design center, with all kinds of medium and senior title of professional and technical personnel 136 people, has been involved in making the country, the industry and the military standard 35 items, the cumulative gain of more than 130 national patents, has repeatedly won the "dermal mark cup" national leather shoes design grand prix prize, in 2014 won the Chinese skills competition, the national first shoemakers skills contest runner-up and six crown and among the top 20, 2017, won the Chinese skills competition the first shoe designer, the national vocational skills competition top five and eight players in the top 10 is strong, In 2018, it won the top three of China skills competition -- the national leather goods design and production skills competition. The leading products of GDMK group, such as "China's 500 most valuable brands", "China's well-known trademark", "China's famous brand", "China's most competitive brand", "industry leading brand", have been sold well in China and exported to more than 40 countries and regions. Since 2009, the GDMK group participated in r&d and production of shoes and boots the parade, the parade was awarded "the military parade to ensure outstanding contribution award", and one after another for the army and armed police forces to research and development production more than 50 varieties of military military shoes and leather products, including the research and development of "new combat boots" won the 2018 "cup" the governor of shandong province industrial design competition gold medal. In their speech, li yuzhong and wang shuangjiang congratulated GDMK group, especially for their efforts and achievements in promoting the improvement of workers' skills and quality over the years. They hoped that GDMK group could cherish the honor, make persistent efforts and achieve more achievements.