With a natural curiosity about how the world works behind the scenes, Northwestern Professor Claudio E. Benzecry found his calling in researching global supply chains to learn about the people, culture, and expertise that make them tick. As a well-known sociologist, he explores the complex social dynamics at play in industries and cultural institutions.
With connections to people in the fashion industry, he frequently heard conversations about women’s shoes and all the details that went into the design process. It made him wonder: What does it really take to move a shoe from a sketchpad to a store display? “As these things were discussed, I would think, ‘That would make such a great project about creativity, innovation, and globalization,’ ” he explains.
To satisfy his curiosity, Benzecry decided to immerse himself in the industry to learn more. After spending years doing hands-on research in places like New York, China, and Brazil to closely study how women’s shoes are designed, produced, and brought to market, he documented his experiences and what he learned in The Perfect Fit: Creative Work in the Global Shoe Industry. Published in 2022, the book is based on Benzecry’s extensive ethnographic research on the global shoe supply chain, revealing how creativity and technical expertise come together across different countries to make the final product.
Exploring the Complex Network Behind Shoe Design
At first, Benzecry envisioned his book telling a story from the point of view of a shoe designer, highlighting what it takes to produce innovation and originality in the context of mass-produced shoes.
To understand how these designers work, he traveled with them to China to observe them in action. But once he got there, he realized what a complex network the industry is. For instance, many of the workers in China were actually from Taiwan or Brazil—they weren’t nationals. This is because the shoe and accessories industry has a long history of following inexpensive labor and technical expertise around East Asia, he explains. China also lacked design training until very recently, while those from Brazil and Taiwan had been in the industry for generations.
“Once I started exploring this path, I realized that designers are just one small part of a much larger network of human and non-human components that come together to produce a shoe.”
During his research, he also spent extensive time in Brazil, where suppliers of finalized leather shoes are located.
A few decades ago, Benzecry says the country was one of the two main producers of finished leather shoes to the United States, which had relied on European countries until labor costs rose. This led to a “gold rush” in Brazilian shoe production, with many small factories cropping up to meet demand. “The infrastructure they built feels like a Detroit for shoes,” he describes.
This development essentially created two global circuits for shoe production: one in Brazil and the Mediterranean countries (focused on finished leather shoes for export) and another in East Asia (focused on more affordable footwear).
“In 2004, in the area I went to in China, 80% of the shoes exported to the United States that were leather-based were from Guangdong, a coastal province in South China. By the time I left in 2017,” says Benzecry, “it was down to only 25% or 30%.”
As global supply chains evolved, collaboration between American buyers, Brazilian factory owners, and Chinese officials led to the establishment of factories that could offer a blend of expertise and cost advantages across these regions.
Bringing to Light the Hidden Forces Behind Global Supply Chains
His experiences took his book from a designer tell-all to an exploration of the complex networks of designers, manufacturers, and suppliers that collaborate to create innovative footwear, as well as the shoe factories and workers.
As he immersed himself in the daily realities of the global shoe industry, he was also uncovering many of the dynamics and invisible threads that help explain what’s happening in the world today with global supply chains. For example, he learned more about the complex interplay between creative expertise and manufacturing, learning how even small disruptions or changes in communication—like the absence of a key fit model—can create waves through the entire production process.
He also discovered more about how the people on the ground navigate challenges like tariffs, labor conditions, and shifting markets to keep creativity alive in a highly competitive industry.
“The conversation I started the project trying to belong to ended up being very different from the conversation I ended up being a part of at the end,” Benzecry explains.
The book’s story provides deep insight into why production and expertise are often distributed globally, given the coordination, specialized skills, and knowledge required at each stage of the manufacturing process, as well as the economic and creative constraints that often motivate companies to cultivate international networks.
When it comes to shoe design and development specifically, the craft requires cost-effective laborers who also have a certain level of expertise and support. Without both, it’s difficult and too expensive to produce shoes competitively.
“The only way we could move factories like that to the U.S. is if they were automated so labor costs weren’t an issue,” Benzecry says. “But that defeats the idea of bringing the factory back home if you can’t hire people. Beyond that, you can’t automate the process of fitting a shoe. That’s why there are fit models in every factory. There are intricacies needed to work with different materials. Leather reacts differently to different temperatures. We currently lack the necessary infrastructure, labor, and specialized services like tanneries that are essential for large-scale shoe production.”
Bringing Real-World Supply Chain Lessons into the Classroom
In his Culture and Globalization course, Benzecry often uses his book’s ethnographic insights to help students understand the complex processes that reinforce global industries. The story serves as a case study of how globalization, labor, and creativity play out in the real world.
“We talk a lot about economic clusters and culture and what’s required for infrastructure if you want to generate a cultural hub. Part of the globalization story is discussing how you move things from one point to the other, as well as the conditions of possibility, or the underlying economic, social, technological, and cultural factors that must be in place for global supply chains and cultural hubs to succeed.”
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