WHEN a brand has a Chinese name and is manufactured in China, you can bet that it isn't going to be easy for it to go global - the 'made in China' tag, after all, is often associated with a lack of quality. But maybe all that's needed to clear those hurdles are some good shoes . . . as is the case with Feiyue.

The sneaker label, whose name means 'flying forward' in Mandarin, has earned itself a cult following worldwide and is one of the top selling sneaker brands in Europe today. Its popularity abroad is thanks to the entrepreneurial brains of three Frenchmen: Nicolas Seguy, Patrice Bastian and Clement Fauth, who five years ago saw the potential of the more-than-80-year-old Chinese brand and took over its ownership for all markets outside China.

'Feiyue was quite a big brand in China before World War II, but because it was a commodity that hadn't changed in design for around 80 years, it was losing out to other brands that were entering the Chinese market by the early 2000s,' explains Mr Seguy.

'At that time, Patrice and I were living in China, and he would buy and wear Feiyue. He had a vision that we could revive the ailing brand, which is precisely what we did.'

Armed with a brand that nobody outside of China knew a bit of and a whole lot of passion, Mr Seguy and Mr Bastian roped in the France-based Mr Fauth and started to rework Feiyue.

'We kept the overall visual aspect of the shoes but we changed everything - from the type of rubber used for the soles to the mould used for the colour pigments. We even created a logo,' says Mr Seguy. 'It wasn't easy. In the beginning, it was just three of us. Patrice moved back to France and worked on the design, Clement handled the distribution chain and I stayed in China to take care of the supply chain.'

But the hard work paid off. From the modest 3,000 pairs of shoes that were made when Feiyue was relaunched in 2006, the company has grown to produce close to a million pairs today. It also has retail outlets in 14 countries and has even collaborated with luxury house Celine to do a retro-designed sneaker for the French brand's Spring Summer 2009 collection. In addition, Feiyue has worked with artists such as Steph Cop and Daubal to produce designs that are chic yet affordable, with prices set between 50 and 100 euros (S$86-172).

The brand's growth is moving along so smoothly in Europe, in fact, that its next step is to expand into Asia - it will soon establish its Asian headquarters in Singapore to take care of distribution within the region. 'That was a decision which we made more than a year ago,' says Mr Seguy, who has relocated from China to Singapore. 'The Asian market is very different from Europe, and to really grow here you have to immerse yourself in it, which is why we decided to open an office in Singapore.'

'The Asian office will also look to collaborate with artists in the region,' he adds. 'And we're looking to set up shop-in-shop concepts for Asia; kind of like a pop-up store but one that is permanent.'

At the moment, Feiyue is only stocked in Singapore by Leftfoot, which means the brand has a relatively small presence here now. So why Singapore as a base?

'Singapore is just great for us geographically, being close to South-east Asia and Australia,' explains Mr Seguy. 'But it also has a great cultural mix of Chinese, Indians and Malays. It's the perfect place to get a sampling of Asia.'

This article was first published in The Business Times.