Beautiful Virgin Islands

Sunday, Oct 05, 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

Beautiful Virgin Islands
0:00
0:00
Close
Trump Stands Firm in Shutdown Showdown and Declares War on Drug Cartels — Turning Crisis into Opportunity
Surge of U.S. Billionaires Transforms London’s Peninsula Apartments into Ultra-Luxury Stronghold
Pro Europe and Anti-War Babiš Poised to Return to Power After Czech Parliamentary Vote
Jeff Bezos Calls AI Surge a ‘Good’ Bubble, Urges Focus on Lasting Innovation
Japan’s Ruling Party Chooses Sanae Takaichi, Clearing Path to First Female Prime Minister
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs Sentenced to Fifty Months in Prison Following Prostitution Conviction
Taylor Swift’s ‘Showgirl’ Launch Extends Billion-Dollar Empire
Trump Administration Launches “TrumpRx” Plan to Enable Direct Drug Sales at Deep Discounts
Trump Announces Intention to Impose 100 Percent Tariff on Foreign-Made Films
Altman Says GPT-5 Already Outpaces Him, Warns AI Could Automate 40% of Work
Singapore and Hong Kong Vie to Dominate Asia’s Rising Gold Trade
Trump Organization Teams with Saudi Developer on $1 Billion Trump Plaza in Jeddah
Manhattan Sees Surge in Office-to-Housing Conversions, Highest Since 2008
Switzerland and U.S. Issue Joint Assurance Against Currency Manipulation
Electronic Arts to Be Taken Private in Historic $55 Billion Buyout
Thomas Jacob Sanford Named as Suspect in Deadly Michigan Church Shooting and Arson
Russian Research Vessel 'Yantar' Tracked Mapping Europe’s Subsea Cables, Raising Security Alarms
New York Man Arrested After On-Air Confession to 2017 Parents’ Murders
U.S. Defense Chief Orders Sudden Summit of Hundreds of Generals and Admirals
Global Cruise Industry Posts Dramatic Comeback with 34.6 Million Passengers in 2024
Trump Claims FBI Planted 274 Agents at Capitol Riot, Citing Unverified Reports
India: Internet Suspended in Bareilly Amid Communal Clashes Between Muslims and Hindus
Supreme Court Extends Freeze on Nearly $5 Billion in U.S. Foreign Aid at Trump’s Request
Archaeologists Recover Statues and Temples from 2,000-Year-Old Sunken City off Alexandria
China Deploys 2,000 Workers to Spain to Build Major EV Battery Factory, Raising European Dependence
Speed Takes Over: How Drive-Through Coffee Chains Are Rewriting U.S. Coffee Culture
U.S. Demands Brussels Scrutinize Digital Rules to Prevent Bias Against American Tech
Ringo Starr Champions Enduring Beatles Legacy While Debuting Las Vegas Art Show
Private Equity’s Fundraising Surge Triggers Concern of European Market Shake-Out
Colombian President Petro Vows to Mobilize Volunteers for Gaza and Joins List of Fighters
FBI Removes Agents Who Kneeled at 2020 Protest, Citing Breach of Professional Conduct
Trump Alleges ‘Triple Sabotage’ at United Nations After Escalator and Teleprompter Failures
Shock in France: 5 Years in Prison for Former President Nicolas Sarkozy
Tokyo’s Jimbōchō Named World’s Coolest Neighbourhood for 2025
European Officials Fear Trump May Shift Blame for Ukraine War onto EU
BNP Paribas Abandons Ban on 'Controversial Weapons' Financing Amid Europe’s Defence Push
Typhoon Ragasa Leaves Trail of Destruction Across East Asia Before Making Landfall in China
The Personality Rights Challenge in India’s AI Era
Big Banks Rebuild in Hong Kong as Deal Volume Surges
Italy Considers Freezing Retirement Age at 67 to Avert Scheduled Hike
Italian City to Impose Tax on Visiting Dogs Starting in 2026
Arnault Denounces Proposed Wealth Tax as Threat to French Economy
Study Finds No Safe Level of Alcohol for Dementia Risk
Denmark Investigates Drone Incursion, Does Not Rule Out Russian Involvement
Lilly CEO Warns UK Is ‘Worst Country in Europe’ for Drug Prices, Pulls Back Investment
Nigel Farage Emerges as Central Force in British Politics with Reform UK Surge
Disney Reinstates ‘Jimmy Kimmel Live!’ after Six-Day Suspension over Charlie Kirk Comments
U.S. Prosecutors Move to Break Up Google’s Advertising Monopoly
Nvidia Pledges Up to $100 Billion Investment in OpenAI to Power Massive AI Data Center Build-Out
U.S. Signals ‘Large and Forceful’ Support for Argentina Amid Market Turmoil
×