IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
Golden Fox Footwear, a company that specializes in work boots, has been located in the Inland Empire for more than 20 years. The company began in the late 1980s when the Wu family began selling Goodyear welt boots at local swap meets. Husband and wife duo Chien Chum Wu and Shao Yin Wu saw how popular their product was and eventually incorporated their business in 1988. The Wu’s began selling Golden Fox Footwear to other local businesses and standalone stores. In 1991, the company moved headquarters to Rancho Cucamonga, to be closer to their customer base.
Over time, Betty Wu, Chien Chum and Shao Yin’s daughter, took over the family business, where she focuses on online sales, marketing and day-to-day-operations.
According to Wu, Golden Fox’s work boots average around $80 a pair, compared to $150 for Timberland work boots. What the team at Golden Fox is most proud of is giving customers the best bang for their buck.
“We still make good quality work boots. We still carry classic work boots, like back in the 1980s. We try to provide high-quality work boots without the high price tag of our competitors,” said Betty Wu, the operations manager at Golden Fox.
One of the biggest challenges Golden Fox sees is the competition. Many brands are making their products in China and shipping them to the U.S., resulting in cheaper costs. While Golden Fox wants to remain competitive, the company refuses to give up on the quality that made them popular over two decades ago.
“The quality of our safety boots is almost equal to brand name companies, like Red Wings, Thorogood, Timberland Pro, or Carhartt, but we’re affordable,” Wu explains.
Wu hopes to grow the brand nationally and eventually open her own ecommerce market, where consumers can buy boots directly from Golden Fox, instead of going through a third party.
