Co-founder of Zuliz elderly shoes, Li Zhongyi, recently shared his insights on how to drive business development through the power of culture and branding in the rapidly changing market environment. This sharing took place at the Zuliz 2025 super explosive product launch event, where the official announcement of the co-branded partnership between Zuliz elderly shoes and the “Ping An Fu” intellectual property was made, along with the upcoming launch of “Leap Month Shoes” and other super explosive products in 2025. Li Zhongyi’s insights undoubtedly provide a comprehensive overview of this strategic direction.
Looking back on the brand’s journey over the past decade, Zuliz has steadfastly maintained a user-centric approach.
In 2014, Zuliz keenly observed the unique needs of the elderly demographic and innovatively introduced a new category of elderly shoes. According to Li Zhongyi’s recollection, at the beginning of the project, the team posed a crucial question: “Why do the elderly need to wear specialized elderly shoes?” Based on this question, the team dedicated themselves to addressing various discomforts that the elderly encounter when wearing shoes. Market research and product testing were conducted in Zhengzhou and Chongqing, where many elderly individuals who tried on these shoes expressed comfort and a superior experience beyond their expectations, resolving common issues like foot pain and fatigue. With the success in the market, Zuliz began its expansion into the national market.
Proudly, Li Zhongyi stated, “In five years, we have established a recognized level of awareness, brand reputation, and credibility, making Zuliz a well-known brand.” Over time, Zuliz tightly integrated the concept of “brand = category = target audience,” making Zuliz elderly shoes the preferred choice for many elderly individuals. Simultaneously, Zuliz has achieved success in category innovation, product development, channel expansion, and strategic planning.
Over the past decade, the continuous growth and expansion of Zuliz can be attributed to its unwavering focus on meeting user demands. Li Zhongyi generously shared, “For example, the simple ‘offering a glass of water at the door’ service aims to capture the user’s time through this thoughtful gesture and achieve sales conversion.” Additionally, the company consistently summarizes successful experiences, develops unique methodologies, and generously imparts them to distributors. Through ongoing iterations, every action taken by the company, its employees, and partners closely aligns with user perceptions, truly putting the user at the center.
The diverse needs of a vast user base are driven by emotional value, fostering youthful consumption.
In 2024, Zuliz explicitly outlined its dual-category strategy of “elderly shoes” + “gifts for elders.” Regarding the decision to expand into a second category, Li Zhongyi pointed out, “With the accelerated aging of Chinese society, companies are facing a potential consumer market comprising 300 million elderly individuals and 900 million middle-aged and young people. ‘Gifts for elders’ is a brand choice based on the dividend of 1.1 billion users. The rapid development of the Chinese economy has led to a significant increase in demand, and a large user base inevitably generates a substantial amount of demand, prompting people to make purchases.”
Despite the frequent mention of “downgrading in consumption” in the external environment, Li Zhongyi believes this is merely a superficial phenomenon. In reality, consumers are increasingly valuing the emotional value and cultural significance behind products, making brand trust and emotional satisfaction crucial. Li Zhongyi emphasizes, “People nowadays are willing to pay for emotions and products that carry beautiful meanings.”
Therefore, brands must embody culture and meet user needs through brand culture. Li Zhongyi draws parallels with other brands on the market, deriving methodologies that align with Zuliz’s own development from successful cases of other brands. By leveraging cultural trends, brands can reshape consumer memories through the power of culture, entering consumers’ minds in familiar ways and awakening their sense of cultural identity.
Through the co-branded partnership with the “Ping An Fu” intellectual property, Zuliz is grounding the concept of “gifting elders with Zuliz” in cultural values.
The core values of “care” and “companionship” have always been integral to the Zuliz brand culture, aligning well with “Fu,” the foremost symbol of blessings in traditional Chinese culture. “Fu” not only carries deep cultural significance but also embodies the spiritual pursuit of the people. The collaboration with the “Ping An Fu” IP created by traditional cultural scholar and Fu culture expert Guantong marks a significant milestone in the brand’s development. Li Zhongyi further explains that through this collaboration, Zuliz can leverage the cultural symbol of “Ping An Fu” to better establish the concept of “gifting elders with Zuliz,” enhancing product value and brand image, thereby strengthening consumer brand recognition and favorability.
Complementing this collaboration is the introduction of explosive products featuring elements of the “Ping An Fu” IP, such as the “Leap Month Shoes” symbolizing adding blessings and longevity to parents. With June 2025 falling on a leap month, Zuliz aims to leverage this powerful symbol to provide consumers with rich emotional value through these “gift products” and strong cultural connotations.
“Brand + culture is the only way to break free from internal competition.” This statement, shared during the presentation, deeply resonated with the on-site distributor partners. Li Zhongyi explained, “Consumers are not lacking products; what they lack are products that can solve problems, have functionality, carry a brand, and evoke emotional resonance. These are the explosive products of this era.”
Only by integrating brand building with cultural communication can one truly break free from the cycle of homogenized competition. As 2025 approaches, only large brands and categories that align with the major trends can face the challenges of the future. This super category imbued with blessings, along with the positive and uplifting power displayed by the brand, will undoubtedly lead Zuliz to create additional value.
