It began in the bustling city of 1920s Shanghai, the most metropolitan, advanced (and possibly the most envied) city in all of China. It was during this period in 1927 that a rubber tire maker, Shanghai Huayi Co., branched out and started crafting affordable, quality rubber shoes. While the Warrior brand, or “Hui Li” in Mandarin, was not to be officially established and trademarked until 1935, the classic Warrior shoe had been born. Within 20 years of the Warrior shoe’s birth, drastic changes swept throughout China as the Communist political ideology took hold of the country. The Warrior Footwear (Shanghai) company, was state mandated by the ruling party to outfit the athletes of China’s national sports programs, most especially the country’s Olympians. The brand’s renown grew and as a result sports fans all over began snapping up the shoes to emulate their sporting heroes. As scores of fashionable young Chinese began to wear the sneakers, Warriors graduated from being a utilitarian sports shoe to an icon, a status symbol that outfitted a generation. As China opened up to the world, western brands entered the market feeding the Chinese’ hungry appetite for the outside world. Kids took up Converses and Nikes while Warriors were cast aside as passe, an artefact of the older generation. Lain low, the brand was adopted by peasants and older people working and living in the countryside, becoming a workhorse shoe a plain sneaker that could withstand the hardships of laborers and rigors of blue collar work. In a sense, the Warrior sneaker has always been a humble shoe, “the people’s” shoe, steadfastly serving those who wore it to use as they please. While relatively unsuccessful compared to decades past, Warrior continued to outfit sports figures, most notably a young Shanghai native named Yao Ming. In 2008, 70 odd years after its birth, a young designer named Shumeng Ye rediscovered the Warrior sneaker. Her photographs and research were published into a beautiful, limited edition book titled the Book of Warriors wherein the brand’s storied history was celebrated. She is credited with igniting the retro trend and jumpstarting the Warrior revolution. At about the same time, Warrior Footwear was making its way into the U.S. and Australia where the legendary brand was introduced and embraced by a new generation.
Warrior Footwear (Classic, Volley, Half Fly, Club) is now available through their Facebook page and will soon be out in online stores like Zalora and TheMall.ph.
