Putian Contract Disputes: What US Founders Need to Know
When a Handshake in Putian Goes Sideways Last month, I got a frantic email from a founder in Austin. He’d wired $180,000 to a shoe manufacturer in Putian, Fujian — advance payment for a fall line. The samples looked great. The WeChat chats were friendly. Then production delays started. Then ghosting. Now the factory claims the specs “weren’t clear enough” and wants more money to finish. Classic. Putian’s manufacturing ecosystem — shoes, apparel, sportswear — runs on speed and relationships. But for US founders, that same informality becomes a trap when things go wrong. Contracts get signed in PDF over WeChat. Specs live in voice messages. Payments move through personal Alipay accounts. When a breach happens, you’re not just fighting a vendor. You’re fighting evidence gaps, jurisdiction questions, and a legal system that doesn’t care about your good intentions. ...