Innovation and high-end technologies help time-honored Chinese brands revitalize themselves while adhering to traditional craftsmanship.

Neiliansheng, a Chinese traditional cloth shoe maker, used to be a symbol of the ancient court nobility and riches with its exquisite craftsmanship. Now it is updating itself with novel design, new materials and modern technologies to catch the attention of young customers.
Over the past years, Neiliansheng applied new technologies like offset printing and new materials like flyknit fabric and silver reflective fabric that can reflect different lights.
According to the brand, its sales during the Spring Festival holiday, which lasted from Feb. 10 till 17, increased by more than 20 percent compared to the previous year.
"In my impression, time-honored shoes are usually in traditional style with only two colors of white and black. When I come here, I found that they have designed some fashionable styles," said a consumer.
The time-honored Neiliansheng brand earned another new title of "high-tech enterprise" in 2024, thanks to its application of new technologies.
While the certification of a high-tech company is complex and difficult for a traditional brand.
"The certification process was quite challenging, with many strict criteria. We have been continuously investing in research and development over the past few years. Investments in research and development have been growing more than 50 percent every year," said Cheng Xu, general manager of the brand.
Neiliansheng spent two million yuan (about 281,000 U.S. dollars) in 2023 on research and development, such as pure handmade production, development of new molds, upgrading of materials and products.
"We never even thought about producing molds before, but now we have turned them into reality. Previously, it took three or four people to make 100 pairs of shoe soles, but now a staff member can complete the work in a moment," said Cai Wenke, the fifth generation of inheritor of the brand.
Neiliansheng has started its research and development work for the year of 2024, with a total investment of three million yuan (about 422,000 U.S. dollars) planned.
"Starting from technologies, we want to drive the future development and inheritance of this century-old brand with distinctive Chinese traditional cultural characteristics," said Cheng.