PETER QU should be the hottest Chinese workboot brand in the past two years, focusing on shell cordovan, which is really stepping on the hearts of consumers.
With the leading workwear KOL, NeverGone’s introduction, I met QU Tao, the founder.
Let’s learn the story of the brand founder who made my interest soar!
Briefly introduce yourself.
I was born in 1986, and my hometown is Luzhou city, Sichuan Province.
After graduating from high school, I failed to get into a satisfactory university. At the age of 19, I came to work in Dongguan shoe factory for a living.
I remember my 20th birthday party was hosted by the owner of the shoe factory.
I have worked in the shoe industry for 19 years and have never thought about changing.
Happy family with a 5-year-old daughter.
I like listening to books and playing sports.
My biggest hobby is running. I have run full marathon eight times in China and abroad. However, in recent years, entrepreneurship has consumed too much energy and time, and my hobby of running has nearly run aground.
How did you fall in love with shoes and workwear?
I started to working in shoe industry in 2006, and my job was a salesman, not the type of work of making shoes on the spot, but docking of foreign export business.
I started my first venture in 2013. At that time, I set up an export trading company with the boss of an American brand customer I knew. Because of this American partner, I learned about the process of welted shoes. During this period, we exported all the assembly line machinery and equipment of Goodyear shoemaking technology to factories in Mexico and visited and studied.
When I really understood the charm of welted shoes, the idea of creating my own brand sprouted at that time.
Frankly speaking, before 2013, doing shoes-related work was just for the sake of work, not love.
After starting my own business, when I visited my American partner company in 2015, he showed me one of his 20 years old boots (made in 1995). The boots were still excellent, and my partner kept most of his sample shoes in the past 20 years. This was the first time since I made shoes that I was “how important it is to the precipitation and cultural heritage of a brand”.
Because in my past work, I have come into contact with many different foreign brands, but most of them just copied famous brands, making minor changes and re-engraving, year after year. I felt that such brands were actually a company that bought and sold goods, not to mention brands with their own unique genes in my mind.
However, the love for welted shoes was also formed at that stage.
The motivation of my love for shoes comes from my desire to create. The products I created can be paid and recognized by the market and consumers. I think this is the most fulfilling thing for all brand founders.
What brands did you try at that time and which touched you the most?
In 2016, my American partner and I decided to end the joint venture because of the decline in export business at that time.
I registered and established my own brand PETER QU, and started a new business. Of course, the main business of the new company is my familiar foreign trade export business. I used to go to Italy to take orders every year.
My own brand didn’t really land until 2019, and I started a small-scale customized shoe business offline.
From 2019 to 2022, we developed and produced many welted shoes in different genres and with different leather materials, such as men’s shoes with formal attire and men’s and women’s shoes with washed retro style; Therefore, during this period, our brand has actually been in the stage of investment and trial, and there is even no clear positioning.
During this period, I did buy dozens of pairs of shoes with different constructions and leathers, and I won’t specifically say which shoe brands I studied.
What touched me the most was that the shoes made in China have been the best. As far as the shoe industry is concerned, men, women and children have very good brands regardless of the price point.
There are so many workboot brands in China, why do you still want to make one yourself? What are the core selling points?
To be noble, being a brand is the ideal of life; To be realistic, it is a strategy for the company to survive and develop for a long time to transform from exporting to B business to its own brand to C business.
The positioning of our brand can be summed up in one sentence: We are determined to be the most professional hand-made shoes and boots brand in China.
I summarize the core selling points as follows:
- Specializing in making hand-made shoes and boots with shell cordovan, we have more advantageous supply chain resources of shell cordovan, and we can select high-quality raw materials of shell cordovan globally, and we know how to bring this high-quality shell cordovan into full play.
- We provide customers with online size customization service, and solve the problem that it is difficult to buy ready to wear shoes with their favorite styles and fit their feet.
- Handwelted construction.
- Free care service for a lifetime.
How did you build your team?
Most of our current company’s teams are core members of our original company. Our company’s supervisor is an employee who has joined the company since I started my business, and only joined some new sewing masters in the last two years.
The current team, except myself, is mostly in the product department.
How did you get the initial customers?
In the early stage, we had some friends who introduced us to some clients who would like to customize shoes in our company, and then started live broadcast on the online platform in June 2022, and now we have accumulated most customers.
What are your three best-selling shoes?
Model: ALL, Last: MAR
Model: PENNY, Last: JAN
Model: BLUCHER, Last: MAR
What is your preference in the choice of leather?
When I decided to be a professional brand of shell cordovan shoes and boots, we started the research and development and evolution of shell cordovan. According to my own plan, our main brand PETER QU will not make non-shell cordovan shoes and boots products for at least 3-5 years.
What are the plans for the near future?
The most important thing is to serve every new and old customer well, deliver products well and handle after-sales service well every day.
In the short term of 1-2 years, we hope to promote the following three things:
A. Looking for offline agents suitable for matching our brand, we don’t pursue many, we can have several in domestic first-tier or new first-tier cities.
B. We may launch a sub-brand with non-customized service, and the specific details cannot be disclosed for the time being.
C. If we can develop steadily in the domestic market this year and next year in 2026, we hope to develop our overseas business by combining independent stations with foreign agents at the end of 2026 or 2027.