December 27th, Chinese consumers have proved that they will pay more than 100 dollars to buy a pair.

"We think China is an emerging market, but it is an emerging market with rich people," Rubel said of the decision to issue the Stride Rite brand of children's shoes in China.

The first StrideRite store in China opened in Hongkong this month and operated by Li Feng Li&FungRetailing (Li&Fung), a large purchasing management company.

Collective has established a cooperative relationship with Li Feng, and plans to expand the Stride Rite brand to the entire mainland of China.

Marketing in the mainland will not focus on prices, which sell for about $50 in the US, but based on the following assumption: Chinese parents will be willing to spend money on brands that provide good reputation for children with feet fit.

As the Collective plan is released, many foreign consumer brands are expanding the Chinese market, hoping to profit from China's growing domestic spending.

A survey by the Boston Consulting Group (BostonConsultingGroup) found that clothing footwear is one of the 6 categories of products planned by China's middle class and wealthy consumers.

Bata, a multinational low-cost Footwear Group, has established a strong business in China and has nearly 250 retail outlets in China.

Collective's launch of StrideRite in China is part of its broader plan to boost global sales growth.

This summer, it built a new European headquarters in Amsterdam and set up a showroom for wholesale customers in London.

The company's other businesses include Keds, Saucony, Sperry brand and the American fashion shoe discount shop PaylessShoeSource.

It also plans to add at least 700 new Payless franchises in emerging markets in the next 5 years, more than two times the existing global retail stores.

This is partly a response to limited domestic growth.

ChristopherSvezia, an analyst at SusquehannaInvestment, a stock research firm, said that the Payless business has matured in the United States, which may lead to its focus on reconstructing the store and replanning and shrinking its retail real estate. Hanna, ChristopherSvezia

Although Payless and WAL-MART and other other discount stores compete in terms of price and "futuristic" style, in many emerging markets, it is regarded as an aspiring brand in Walmart, Target.

Its Latin American branch is also better than the US: its operating profit margin in the past year is 10.5%, much higher than 6% in the domestic market.

Rubel said: "the main task of Payless is to find emerging markets that are moving from lower income consumers to middle-income consumer economies, where infrastructure needs to be perfected, and the local shoe retail market has yet to be integrated."

But Collective has decided not to bring Payless to China. In China, its low price fashion shoes will face fierce competition from many local brands.

Instead, it will launch a more expensive StrideRite brand in China.

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Following the opening of the Gulf and Middle East in 2009 and Russia and Philippines in 2009, the Payless franchise will also open in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Mexico.

In Mexico, according to the plan, 41 franchise stores will open in the next 3 years, reaching 300 in the longer term.

In the three Southeast Asian countries, Collective estimates that it will eventually open at least 400 stores.

It calls them the "largest franchise market opportunity to date".

J Vee Zia said that it is too early to assess their possible impact on Collective in view of the fact that only a few franchises are open.

In addition, Wall Street is still concerned about the core US business of the company, and the impact of the US economy on its lower income clients is a blow to this business.

Collective's stock price is currently about $21, a slight drop from the beginning of the year to more than 5%.