The shoes reach overseas markets with no obvious hint of their origin, bearing labels of international brands and styles that follow the latest fashion trends, yet a closer look reveals the woven texture of hemp fiber, carefully crafted by hand rather than pressed by machine.
The work begins far from global fashion capitals in Gangu County, a rural region in northwest China's Gansu Province. There, women sit at long tables weaving hemp threads into shoe uppers, which will later be assembled, branded and sold abroad.
Hemp shoes have been made in Gangu for more than a thousand years, using green hemp grown in the Weihe River basin. The technique was listed as a provincial intangible cultural heritage in 2017. For much of its history, the shoes were confined to local markets. In recent years, however, enhanced market access has driven a major expansion.
One of the people behind the shift is Niu Junjun, a Gangu native who studied e-commerce and returned home after graduating in 2011. While still in college, he and Guo Juan, now his wife, began selling hemp shoes online.
"The shoes were breathable and affordable," Niu recalled. "They sold well online."
Encouraged by this initial success, the couple decided to turn their experiment into a business. They founded the Gansu Yaluren hemp handicraft development company, set up a factory, recruited local artisans and focused on redesigning the product rather than the process. Using traditional hemp weaving techniques, they adapted popular footwear styles and updated designs based on market feedback.
Today, their company produces more than 200 styles of hemp shoes, including slippers, sandals and casual outdoor shoes. Annual domestic sales exceed 200,000 pairs. One of the new models, inspired by canvas sneakers, is designed for daily wear and has drawn interest from younger consumers.
In 2021, foreign trade firms began placing orders. Rather than requesting finished shoes, they focused on components such as woven uppers and decorative flowers, produced according to design drawings supplied by overseas clients.
Orders can be substantial. A single contract may call for more than 10,000 shoe uppers or over 200,000 decorative pieces, sometimes requiring several hundred female workers to complete