London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Meet the richest person in Taiwan, who built an $11.7 billion fortune by making shoes for brands like Nike and Vans — and started it all on a pig farm

Meet the richest person in Taiwan, who built an $11.7 billion fortune by making shoes for brands like Nike and Vans — and started it all on a pig farm

Zhang started his first shoe business on a pig farm next to paddy fields in Taiwan. Today, the founder of Huali makes shoes for Nike and Vans.

He started his first shoe business on a pig farm. Today, Zhang Congyuan is Taiwan's richest person, and he's built his $11.7 billion fortune making sneakers for some of the world's biggest brands.

The 74-year-old is also the richest self-made newcomer on this year's Forbes' World Billionaires list, an annual ranking of the wealthiest people in the world.

As founder of Huali Industrial Group, Zhang's firm produces shoes for brands such as Nike, Ugg, and Vans. Huali churns out more than 180 million pairs of shoes a year, according to Bloomberg.

For all of his success, he maintains a low profile, rarely giving interviews or appearing at public events. Taiwanese media calls him the "mysterious shoe king."

Humble beginnings


Born into a farming family in the Taiwanese countryside of Yunlin, Zhang worked in a women's shoe factory after graduating from an agricultural college, according to Taiwan's Business Weekly.

He eventually saved up enough money to start his own shoe factory in the 1980s — although he had his limitations.

"I had no money at home, so I had to live within my means. People buy good plots of land to build new buildings, I got a pig farm and a farmhouse in the countryside," he told the magazine in a rare interview last year.

Housed next to paddy fields in western Taiwan, the pig farm produced quality shoes despite its shabby exteriors, the magazine reported, citing Chiang Wei-lun, an executive of shoe box firm Goodbox.

"Zhang spent money on good materials, and his equipment was never inferior to other people," Chiang said.

By the late 1980s, Zhang had set up several other footwear ventures across Taiwan and in China's southern province of Guangdong. The competition was rife: Guangdong is known as "the world's factory," where everything from handbags and shoes to Christmas decorations is made for export.

But Zhang saw an opportunity to set himself apart, Business Weekly reported. That opportunity was vulcanized shoes — the type of shoes popular with skateboarders for their gummy, pliable rubber soles. Even though vulcanized shoes are cheap to produce, the style was not popular with shoemakers at the time because it was unfashionable and signaled low profits.

"Other people in the industry gave up on them, but I just wanted to focus on achieving good quality (shoes)," Zhang told the magazine.

When these shoes started becoming trendy in the 1990s, Zhang already had a headstart and was able to produce them for the likes of Vans and Converse. Converse filed for bankruptcy in 2001, but Zhang maintained relations with the brand, the magazine said. Two years later, when Nike acquired Converse, it was on Converse's recommendation that Nike work with Zhang.

Zhang officially set up Huali Industrial in 2004, and today, it has factories in China, Vietnam, and Dominica.

Asked about his secret to success, he told Business Weekly that "there is no mystery."

"To get to the bottom of it, it's only about whether you have the determination to do better than others," he said.

Insider reached out to Zhang for comment through Huali Group but did not immediately receive a response.

Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×