Word: leatherizing
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Manzano's once dominant share of the market for no-frills office swivel chairs has collapsed because Chinese producers churn them out with almost the same quality at a fraction of the cost. Now the Chinese are stepping up to more sophisticated chairs in wood and leather too. Talk about "the crisis" is ubiquitous in Manzano--even the executives of thriving companies are worried that the unique industrial fabric of the area is fraying. "We see people with tears in their eyes, not knowing what to do next," says Simone Focacci, manager of one of Manzano's three principal banks...
...plastic-mold factory worker, scraped together $3,000; bought wheels, arms, foam padding and plywood chair bodies from local components manufacturers; and hired 20 friends to assemble the parts into finished products. Today his Heaven Office Furniture makes 1,000 kinds of office chairs, from executive models in black leather and chrome to squat cloth-clad cubicle standards. Zhu won his first export contract in 2004. He also attended the Cologne Furniture Fair in Germany and sent 80% of his $3 million output to 20 countries. Through a screen of plastic bamboo along his office window, he points...
...know they have to change. From the vantage point of Italy, Chinese firms may seem to have enormous cost advantages. But none in Anji think sustained economic growth can be built on price alone. Wang Yongqi, a gym teacher who started making chairs in 2000, surveys a batch of leather-sheathed dining chairs bound for Spain and sighs. "Our materials are getting more expensive," he says, "and we need more workers, but unless we can improve our designs, we can't raise prices. Otherwise our clients will go to Vietnam or other parts of China." Chairs may be for sitting...
...competed in beauty pageants in the past, and she even aspired to be Miss Junior Alabama. She’s never actually modelled, but she’s closer than most. Except, of course, for Laura Duncan. A student at the Graduate School of Design, Duncan brought along a leather binder full of photos from past modeling jobs, for which she has earned up to $3,500. Like the freshman and sophomore modeling neophytes, she is tall and thin. But unlike the younger girls, Duncan is a tad slicker—she’s obviously done much more voguing...
...SNAPSHOT“I was tired of being at school,” says Ryan A. Delany ’08. “It was a chance to play G. I. Joe for a couple of years.” Delany, in a Superman T-shirt, aviator sunglasses, leather jacket, and heavy black boots, looks the part of soldier/badass. But this tough-guy persona is no act. Having graduated high school in 1999, Delany joined the Marines, pushing college aside. “I needed a chance to grow up,” Delany says. The unenthusiastic student proved...