Elderly Shoe Market Observation: Lack Of Industry Standard, Some Goods Are Short After Sale.

Lu Apo of Shanghai bought a pair of brand "old shoes" on the electronic business platform. Soon after that, shoes appeared glue and other problems. The customer service was asked to return the goods. After a few words were blocked, the staff no longer heard. Ms. Zhao bought two pairs of "old shoes" for her mother at a supermarket, and sold them for a year. The shoes were open and replaced with new ones. However, after half a year, the soles were broken and broken.

Some "old shoes" products are frequently seen in advertisements, attracting a large number of consumers with their accurate selling points of "safe and comfortable" and "suitable for the elderly". However, the frequent quality problems and the "broken" after-sales service that followed frequently bring many troubles to consumers.

According to the National Bureau of statistics, as of the end of last year, China's population over 60 years old reached 249 million, accounting for 17.9% of the total population. According to the survey of Shanghai Consumer Protection Committee, the number of enterprises specializing in the manufacture and sale of "elderly shoes" increased from more than 1700 in 2014 to more than 3500 in 2018, with a growth rate of 106%.

The author uses "old shoes" as the key word in the electronic business platform search, and finds that "old shoes" are various, different styles, and the prices are uneven: the high is up to 3000 yuan, and the low is only 19 yuan. These so-called "old shoes" generally attract good attention due to their excellent abrasion resistance, skid resistance and flexibility.

Are these "old shoes" really as comfortable as they claim? This is not the case.

The Yangtze River Delta consumer rights protection committee recently carried out a comparative test of "elderly shoes", and found that among the 80 batches of samples, the sole was over 20% and the sole was 15%. Some samples are heavy in weight, soft and bent. Of the 80 batches of samples, 58.75% of the "elderly shoes" implemented the "travel shoes" standard, 7.5% of the "elderly shoes" to implement the "casual shoes" standard, the remaining 33.75% did not mark the standard.

"From the point of view of business publicity," elderly shoes "has become a subdivision of footwear industry. However, there is no clear industry standard, and in the face of all kinds of exaggerated publicity, the rights and interests of the elderly are easily infringed. Tao Ailian, Secretary General of Shanghai consumer rights protection committee, said. At present, the "old shoes" sold in the market are actually sports shoes, professional shoes and cloth shoes. Some businessmen, in order to maximize profits, will sell the inferior shoes that do not meet the quality standards to "consumers' shoes" and sell them to "one shot for another place".

In order to set rules for the industry of "elderly shoes", recently, the Federation of Consumer Protection Committee of the Yangtze River Delta commissioned the Leather Technology Association of Shanghai to formulate the first "elderly shoes" group standard in China. In addition to making explicit demands on the wear-resisting and folding resistance and bonding strength of shoes, combined with the characteristics of the elderly, the specific requirements of "elderly shoes" are not allowed to be accessible.

Experts said that the relevant departments should issue more detailed management regulations for products such as "old shoes" and so on, and strictly investigate and deal with all kinds of actions against the rights and interests of the elderly, so that the elderly can rest assured that they can spend their money at ease and promote the healthy development of the "silver hair economy".