Reboot

Chapter 4Finding suppliers in Hong Kong

Michael and I had just attended the wedding of our friends Alex and Cynthia Rous in Bali, Indonesia. It was our first trip to Bali (confusing, I know, given that we're Australian and should have been there many times over by the time we were 27 years old). Since we were in the region, we'd decided to fly from Bali to Hong Kong to visit Mr Tin's store and others we'd found out about in our research.

We didn't know if these stores were fronts for factories, or if they were simply retail brands that had suppliers who made their shoes for them. We didn't know exactly what the outcome of this visit would be. However, it seemed like the right lead to follow, so we went to learn what we could.

We decided that we needed to scout out all the stores to understand their aesthetic and the quality of their product. We'd do this dressed in our casual clothes so that we'd look like and be treated as consumers. We only wanted to spend our time in longer conversations with the stores that had product of the standards we wanted. In Hong Kong at that time English was very prevalent, so communication was not an issue.

Of the stores we visited, we found two or three we really liked. The next day Michael and I went back to these stores in our business attire, armed with business cards and our idea. Somewhat to our surprise, the initial pitch and approach did get us in the door.

Just like Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles

I looked across the table at Jennifer, our ...