Footwear: Logistics from China

From China to Any Destination: Key Aspects of Footwear Logistics

Footwear operates on its own schedule: collections are released during specific sales windows (summer and winter campaigns), and much of the manufacturing remains concentrated in China. As a result, managing the shipment of goods from various Asian ports and coordinating the maritime transport of large volumes requires logistics that are perfectly coordinated to meet the deadlines for each campaign.

Equipment at the Port of Origin

Most footwear shipments are transported in 40'HC containers. However, during peak season, equipment is not always available at the port of origin, which can delay shipments precisely when demand is highest.

To avoid this dependency, Global Cargo System has more than 500 of its own, recently manufactured 40'HC SOC containers reserved for its own shipments. Additionally, to maximize cargo capacity, we manage the availability of 45'HC containers—a container with greater cubic capacity that is ideal for optimizing the volume of footwear cargo.

Our Own Presence in China

Most operators who work with Chinese footwear do so through networks of local agents or partners, a common practice in the industry. At Global Cargo System, we operate differently: we have our own offices and warehouses in China, staffed by more than 100 professionals specializing in footwear shipments. This allows us to handle customer instructions directly at the source and in real time. The idea is that Spain is always the “entry point,” even if the merchandise is 10,000 km away.

Triangular Sales

The traditional way of doing business has been: manufacture in China, import to Spain, and from there, export to the end customer in another country. This makes sense when the main market is Spain. But when a significant portion of sales goes to the United States, South America, or another destination, that intermediate stop adds time and handling steps that aren’t always necessary.

For these cases, there are triangular operations: the shipment is managed directly from China to the final destination, without passing through Spain. At Global Cargo System, we have a department dedicated to this type of operation between China, Spain, the United States, Europe, and South America, acting as a single point of contact and maintaining document confidentiality between the manufacturer and the end buyer.

In summary

Many operators in the footwear sector share this experience. What sets their day-to-day operations apart usually lies in the details: having their own infrastructure (offices, warehouses, containers, and a team dedicated to triangulation) versus relying on a network of external partners. This difference is particularly noticeable when an unforeseen event arises or when an operation needs to be coordinated across multiple countries simultaneously, ensuring total control over cargo handling, space optimization, shipment tracking, and the management of multiple SKUs using specialized software.