“I want to pay a modeling fee to President Yoon… I will definitely repay you”

On the 17th, we met at the headquarters of Bayer in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do, and Won-gil Kim, CEO of Bayer. He is showing the same line of comfort shoes that President Yoon Seok-yeol bought. [사진 = 배윤경 기자]

“The past two years have been so difficult that most of the directly-managed stores have been closed due to COVID-19, but the news that the president has been there has been pouring in orders for products from the weekend. ”

On the 18th, Bayer headquarters in Goyang-si, Gyeonggi-do. Won-gil Kim, CEO of Bayer, the No. 1 company for comfort shoes in Korea, might not hide his excitement. This is because President Yoon Seok-yeol and his wife, Kim Geon-hee, visited the Gangnam branch of Shinsegae Department Store to purchase Bayer Comfort shoes on the 14th, the first weekend since inauguration. This was done without prior notice, such as a visit notice.

As it is known that the shoes that President Yoon bought and wore were chosen by Mrs. Kim herself, the official website of Bayer was paralyzed throughout the weekend and many products were sold out. Sales more than doubled over the weekend.

At that time, President Yoon purchased the loafer-shaped plain comfort shoes without laces or decorations at 190,000 won, a 30% discount from the regular price of 279,000 won. CEO Kim was also wearing these shoes.

CEO Kim emphasized, “I feel like I want to give a model fee to President Yoon,” and “I can’t pay the model fee directly, so I will definitely repay you in any way, whether it’s volunteer work. I won’t be enjoying this luck alone.”

Director Kim is a member of the Honor Society, a club for major donors with more than 100 million won, as well as vice president of the Small and Medium Business Love Sharing Foundation, and a director of World Together. He said, “I received a lot of congratulatory messages from those around me. They say, ‘I did a lot of good work and I was blessed'” he said.

President Yoon Seok-yeol visited the Gwangjang Market on the 14th, the first weekend since his inauguration, and went to purchase shoes at the Shinsegae Department Store Gangnam branch near his home. provided by the reader. [사진 출처 = 연합뉴스]

Bainer is an Italian handmade shoe brand launched in 1961 by the founder of Bayer de Pietri. CEO Kim, a former medalist as a shoe craftsman who has been making handmade shoes for 47 years, has been importing handmade shoes since 1996 while running his own brand, and then acquired Bayer in 2011.

CEO Kim is also known as a pioneer in grafting the moccasin method (a shoe manufacturing technology that covers the sole of the foot with a single piece of leather to the instep).

He said, “Even before the takeover of Bainer, the founder trusted me and my product enough to let me write the name of the shoe I made in Korea without a single penny of royalties.” As In-son’s son took over the company, he acquired Bayer to continue the craftsmanship.”

Although Bayer is confident in its product power, sales plummeted as the COVID-19 pandemic (pandemic) began. Annual sales fell from 50 billion won a year to 20 billion won. As stores with zero daily sales continued to appear, CEO Kim struggled to the point of canceling insurance to raise funds for him. In the midst of this, damage to dealerships was minimized by reducing the number of stores mainly directly managed.

CEO Kim said, “You don’t know how difficult it was for small and medium-sized businesses during the time of Corona 19. The number of people in the company was cut by half. “he said.

With tears in his eyes, he set up a tent in front of the company and started a special sale. Usually, women’s shoes account for 80% of sales, but President Yoon’s purchase of men’s shoes is expected to increase the proportion of men’s shoes sales, and he is already preparing for an ‘upgrade version’ of President Yoon’s shoes, as he has been working on additional technology development and production line expansion overnight.

View of the laboratory of the Bayer headquarters [사진 = 배윤경기자]

CEO Kim said, “You have to try on our shoes to know. They are really comfortable. I try on all shoes myself, but there are no calluses,” said Kim.

He meets President Yoon next week. This is because the small and medium-sized business meeting led by the Federation of Small and Medium Enterprises will be held on the 25th in front of the President’s Office in Yongsan, Seoul. This is the first economic group event to be held in the Oval Office since the inauguration of the Yun Seok-yeol government. In addition to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the heads of five major groups, including Samsung Electronics Vice Chairman Lee Jae-yong, will also attend this event to promote win-win cooperation with small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

CEO Kim said, “The world was buzzing because the president bought a shoe for a small business. It is to empower small business people.” He said, “When entrepreneurs have a good taste for work, business goes well, they pay more taxes, and jobs increase. Europe I want the government to educate entrepreneurs so that they can create a 100-year-old company with craftsmanship like Japan or Japan. If there is an opportunity, I want to tell the president this.”

[배윤경 매경닷컴 기자]
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