Challenge China – The End

We are on the last couple of garments on the final day of our SS2010 prototype development meetings out in China. Ten days, five factories, eight flights, and enough meals out to last me the rest of the year. Around 9000 miles not including the 6000 miles home, starting at midnight tonight. The most important thing is that the prototypes look great and we are on timetable.


The highlight of the trip has to be a slight diversion to the Great Wall and the Forbidden City in Beijing for a few hours with one of our factories. It was snowing quite a bit on the wall and around –5oC but that didn’t seem to put off the hundreds of people clambering up the steps to the nearest high point. It was amazingly dangerous near the top with every one of the polished angled steps a potential leg breaker. Our factory contact was particularly worried for our/his safety trying to force me to use the metal railings at every opportunity…he hadn’t heard of Inov-8’s. They would clean up with a Mudclaw stand next to the ticket booth (other extremely grippy shoes are available).

We get home on Wednesday morning and I move on to AW2010 design work.