Blog
 Author: David
The Feiyue brand dates back to the 1920s and until recently there have been only slight changes. Perhaps they became just a little bit narrower but this happened many years ago. Most Europeans only discovered them since the turn of the century so would not be aware of that. Sourcing a good pair of Chinese Feiyue shoes can be difficult. It is even more important to get things right when you are buying in bulk. We have been aware for some time of some differences between different manufacturers and between genuine and fake. Only recently did we discover a more complete explanation.
The French have done much to raise the profile of the brand amongst the general public but it does seem to have had the side effect of making things harder for the traditional buyers of these shoes. So what are the differences? Most noticably the word Feiyue is much larger in the French version and of course the range of colours is much wider. The sole is redisgned and they look somehow sleeker. Confusingly they do also make a version 'Shaolin Soul' in white with red and blue stripes (top picture). We are finding an increasing number of people approaching us who have been wearing Feiyue shoes for years who find their previous supplier has suddenly without warning changed the style of their shoes. We haven't as yet been able to find out why this is happening but have our suspicions and would love to get to the bottom of it. It is as though as the Chinese are to be a bit star-struck by the success of the French version and some factories seem to have moved to bring their shoes into line with the French. All this is bad news for the martial artists and Parkour traceurs looking for the original styles.
There are also many imitations such as Feilon and Feiyin and fakes (shanzhai) out there as well but lets not venture onto the dark side. Things are complicated enough in the light. There are a few basic things I now look for in these shoes to know I'm getting the right ones.
Now I don't want to complain about the changes I have seen. No doubt they have good reasons for making these changes. I am just here to fight for those of us in movement oriented sports, martial arts, dance, circus, free-running etc. who need a reliable long-term source of good value shoes with excellent balance, ground contact and room for the toes to move. As far as we know, the factory we deal with are not planning to make any changes to their design but just to be sure, we have already secured our supplies of the black ones for the next year! May be reproduced only with this link intact - www.taichifinder.co.uk |
But to take a step back, it is our understanding that there are essentially two authorised manufacturers in China (Shanghai Dafu Rubber and Top One) and these manufacturers may each have one or more than one factories producing different variations on the basic design.
Major Upgrade Author: David |   
The history: When we upgraded our website a couple of years ago , we were intending to replace the shopping cart too and to this end tried out all the most popular solutions but none of them came close to providing what we had already. Sparkly new shopping cart: After lots of work we finally switched over to a new system at the end of March 2011 which I hope you will agree is simple to use and well designed. A few features still to come: We intend next year to give you the facility to save your details for future orders using the same account you use for contributing class, event and articles. Changes in pricing: Our business has changed and we are once again focusing more on shoes and clothing rather than DVDs. As a result we will extending our volume discount to all products! Although no longer offering free shipping for DVDs we will still be offering you our best pricing. Please enter the coupon code: At the moment wholesale/ bulk discounts are only available by coupon code so please make sure you enter the coupon code to receive your discount if your order qualifies. Let us know of any issues: As the shopping software is new, there may be the occasional issue that we haven't spotted so do let us know. The 5 Most Useful Resources for Instructors Author: David |
As things start to wind down for the Christmas break I hope you were able to look back on the year with some satisfaction. it is worth spending a bit of time considering how to make sure 2011 is an even better year.
Taking a look at some of the top tools for tai chi teachers I thought of Twitter and Facebook. Yes they are certainly popular but are they going to save you time and effort or are they turning out to be big time wasters. Only you can decide. Now I am assuming that as you are reading this, you already have your classes listed on Tai Chi Finder so we'll take that as a given.
Travelling Light, Teaching Light Author: David
What do intructors need bring along to classes I wonder? Remember the old days when you had to bring along a bunch of CDs and a ghetto blaster to play them on?
I decided to try and reduce the about of 'stuff' I take to classes this week. I thought about going cold turkey on the music but my students weren't keen on that idea so I did the next best thing. I loaded up the mobile phone with a few albums of tai chi music (licensed for teaching purposes), bought the cutest little speaker for the princely sum of £13, popped it in my pocket and turned up to class feeling a bit naked without my sound system. Everyone loved the little speaker and one of my students said they had one at home that they had bought for taking abroad as it weighs so little and takes up hardly any space in the luggage. For a small hall with around twenty students just the one speaker was enough and two was sufficient to fill a much larger space (you can just daisy chain them). |
