"Continent's Sneaker Prices".. Online Mall Selling 250,000 Won Shoes for 8,400,000 Won

A pair of Li-Ning brand sneakers, originally priced at 1,499 yuan (approximately 257,000 KRW), is being sold for 48,889 yuan (approximately 8,382,000 KRW) on a Chinese shopping mall. Photo by Hongseong Newspaper.

[Asia Economy Reporter Heo Midam] Amid strong moves in China to ban foreign brand products over human rights issues in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, it has been revealed that some Chinese shopping malls exploited patriotic sentiment to make excessive profits, sparking controversy.

On the 5th (local time), the People's Daily and China Securities Journal reported that some shoe brokers visited stores of Chinese sneaker brands such as Li Ning (李寧) and Anta (安踏), purchasing popular models in various sizes and colors, then reselling them at high prices through online shopping malls.

In particular, one shopping mall was found to have raised the selling price of a popular Li Ning model, originally priced at 1499 yuan (about 257,000 KRW), to 48,889 yuan (about 8,382,000 KRW), an increase of approximately 31 times.

Also, an Anta model priced at 499 yuan (about 85,000 KRW) was reportedly sold for about 8 times the original price at 4599 yuan (about 788,000 KRW). Despite this price, nearly 9,000 people purchased the shoes.

The brokers reportedly used credit cards to pay for the goods and refunded them if they did not sell. One merchant said, "One of my colleagues once bought products worth 100,000 yuan (about 17,146,000 KRW) at once and made enough profit to buy a car by reselling them."

Earlier, following the controversy over forced labor involving the Uygur ethnic group in Xinjiang, global companies such as H&M, Nike, and Adidas declared a boycott of Xinjiang cotton, which led to a widespread boycott movement against these companies within China.

Regarding this, the People's Daily urged, "Patriotic netizens supported Chinese brands with enthusiasm but ended up being overcharged," and called for "regulatory authorities to take firm action to cool down this shoe speculation fever."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.