For all Chinese, the United States abolished the Chinese Exclusion Act is indeed good news. Although the Chinese Exclusion Act has no substantial impact on wealthy people like Chen Qiang, it is definitely a good thing to be able to abolish this bill that is full of discrimination against Chinese people.
At this time, China and the United States had reached a military alliance and the two sides wanted to work together to deal with Japan. Then the "Anti-Chinese Act" which was full of discrimination against China was a bit out of place, so the top leaders of the United States began to discuss the abolition of the "Anti-Chinese Act".
On Japan, US President Roosevelt asked the US Congress to repeal the Chinese Exclusion Act. After deliberations by the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives, the House of Representatives announced the passage of abolishing the Chinese Exclusion Act. A decree was passed in 10 days, which is absolutely efficient for the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. In the future, the president just took office and proposed a bill. After eight years, it is common for Congress to discuss the bill.
In fact, things like the "Anti-Chinese Act" have no impact on those rich and powerful Chinese. For example, Mr. Kong, although he is a Chinese, he still eats, drinks, plays and buys industries after he comes to the United States, and can even take advantage of loopholes in the United States to sell cars. The "Anti-Chinese Act" is a decoration in his eyes.
For example, Chen Qiang was originally a world-renowned athlete. His fame was there and naturally would not be bound by the Chinese Exclusion Act. The United States even hoped that someone like Chen Qiang, who was capable, would join the American nationality. After Chen Qiang made a lot of money, the Chinese Exclusion Act would be even more ineffective for Chen Qiang.
However, for ordinary Chinese who stay in the United States, the China Exclusion Act has a great impact. Because of the China Exclusion Act, Chinese people do not have the opportunity to get education and work in the United States, and their status is even worse than that of African-American residents. Although African-American residents in the United States are second-class citizens and are subject to various restrictions, they are nominally considered American "citizens". However, due to the restrictions of the China Exclusion Act, Chinese people are not even considered "citizens".
Therefore, the abolition of the Chinese Exclusion Act is great good news for ordinary Chinese living in the United States. Although discrimination in American society still exists, unfair treatment of people of color will still exist, and will not be resolved in the future, at least in law, it gives Chinese people in the United States more opportunities.
Chen Qiang left Beckland's laboratory. On the way back, Chen Qiang's mind was about Beckland's suggestion to open a sports goods company.
For Chen Qiang, this is indeed a good suggestion. In this time and space, no one can compare to Chen Qiang when it comes to understanding sports goods. Chen Qiang knows which sports goods can make money, knows how to promote various sports goods, and knows the future development trends of sports goods, and knows what various sports goods will look like in the future. With Chen Qiang’s knowledge in his mind, if he opens a sports goods company, he will inevitably launch new products every year, and they are all the most fashionable things.
"Sports goods are indeed a big business. In the future, this is a big market worth hundreds of billions of dollars a year. If you really want to open a sports goods company, you have to plan it well." Chen Qiang said in his heart.
There are too many categories of sports goods, and this title is too general. It can be said that in the process of physical education, competitive sports and physical exercise, all the items involved can be called sports goods.
For example, basketball, football, volleyball, these are naturally sports goods; tennis rackets, badminton rackets, table tennis rackets, and ping-pong rackets are also sports goods; barbells, dumbbells, treadmills, and cyclists are also sports goods; shoes for sprinting, shoes for kicking football, shoes for playing basketball, and shoes for playing basketball, even shoes for running in the morning are still sports goods; clothes during competitions, clothes during training, large vests worn when mixing in the gym, and yoga pants for practicing yoga are also sports goods; even big swords that old men exercise in the park, fans used by aunts to dance square dance can also be classified as sports goods.
Just talking about sports goods is too complicated and I can’t count them.
However, Chen Qiang knew that in the future, the most profitable of all sports goods would undoubtedly be shoes.
For people who exercise regularly, shoes are a consumable, except for swimming.
For professional athletes, it is normal to smooth a pair of shoes in a few days. Even ordinary sports enthusiasts, if they exercise for two hours a day, it is difficult for a pair of sports shoes to last for half a year. Therefore, the frequency of changing sports shoes is relatively high.
The reason why sports shoes make money is because there is a special type of sports shoes, that is, basketball shoes.
Basketball heels are different for other sports shoes. Basketball shoes can be worn in daily life, and they are quite comfortable to wear, such as walking or working without delaying at all. Special shoes for other sports are different. For example, nail shoes for sprinting cannot be used in daily life. One aspect is that there are nails on the forefoot that are uncomfortable to wear. The key is that they are inconvenient. If you are indoors, you may have to break the floor.
The durability, support, stability and comfort of basketball shoes are very good, so they can be integrated into the daily life of ordinary people and become part of people's daily wear. In addition, many "trendy people" like to wear basketball shoes in the future, so basketball shoes have become the most widely used one of all sports shoes.
The price of basketball shoes is not cheap at all. Not to mention those who sing shoes in later generations have sold basketball shoes at sky-high prices, just talking about the normal official price of basketball shoes is much more expensive than ordinary leather shoes or casual shoes. The big brand of basketball shoes can only be considered entry-level, and professional shoes are embarrassed to wear them. Nike and Adidas have more basketball shoes for a pair of thousands of dollars, and many styles even require reservations to be purchased.
Other types of shoes cannot enjoy this kind of treatment. If anyone spends 1,000 yuan to buy a pair of casual shoes, they probably think you are crazy? Spend 1,000 yuan to buy that shabby thing!
High price naturally means big profits. The cost of basketball shoes worth 1,000 yuan per pair is probably not even 100 yuan. Nike sold itself with a market value of 150 billion US dollars by selling basketball shoes, and its annual revenue is as high as 40 billion US dollars. It will spend hundreds of millions of US dollars to sign a player endorsement without blinking.
As for other sports goods, all of them may not be as profitable as shoes. Hongshuangxi, who dominates table tennis, is already very happy to sell one billion yuan a year; Will Sheng’s tennis rackets are the world’s top, but their racket sales are not as good as Nike’s sneakers.
Of course Chen Qiang knew the huge profits of basketball shoes. If he was asked to open a sports goods company, he would of course use shoes as the company's main product. Chen Qiang remembers a lot of classic styles of sneakers in his mind. If he asked him to design sneakers, he only needed to copy a few future best-selling styles to easily crush other competitors.
"If I open a sports goods company and make shoes, then there will be nothing Nike or Adidas in the future!" Chen Qiang thought proudly, but the next second, Chen Qiang realized that he was too presumptuous. These shoes were not something that could be done by saying that they could do, at least they could not be done during the war.
Because the United States controls strategic materials!
In China at that time, many people made cloth shoes themselves. The women at home took the soles and sewed the uppers, and took care of the family's shoes. They were completely self-sufficient in wearing shoes.
Americans do not have such good handicraft skills. They all rely on buying their shoes, and they also rely on shoemaking factories to make shoes. Americans do not wear old Beijing cloth shoes. Their shoes are mainly made of leather and rubber. Leather and rubber can be used in wars and are both strategic materials, so they were regulated during World War II, so the raw materials for shoemaking were not so easy to get.
Due to the tight rubber resources, at the end of 1942, the United States issued a law to provide limited supply of shoes. At this time, ordinary people in the United States were also restricted from buying shoes. Of course, the United States has rich resources and strong industrial production capacity. Even if shoes are rationed, the quota is enough for ordinary people to use, and there is still surplus.
The American shoemaking industry has also obtained a large number of orders from the army, producing shoes for various combat purposes, military boots, field shoes suitable for multiple terrain, anti-slip shoes needed by the navy, etc., which has become the mainstream products of the shoemaking industry. It is precisely because of the production of shoes for the army that those shoemaking factories can obtain the raw materials for shoemaking.
"My shoe-selling plan was not feasible at least before 1945. Now I can't get the materials for making shoes. It's okay to say something about leather. You can get cowhide and pig skin if you spend more money, but rubber is really not available without the approval of the military. It would be great if there was synthetic rubber now." Chen Qiang sighed helplessly.
During World War II, Germany had the most developed synthetic rubber industry. Since Germany could not obtain natural rubber resources, it could only study synthetic rubber. The styrene butadiene rubber used by the Germans during World War II was already very similar to natural rubber.
In addition to Germany, the Soviet Union's synthetic rubber industry was also very developed. Because the Soviet Union had no rubber resources, it could only develop synthetic rubber substitutions.
Before the outbreak of the Pacific War, the United States had always controlled the Philippines. In addition, the United States also had Hawaii and Brazil as its backing, so it did not lack the source of natural rubber, so the United States' synthetic rubber industry was not developed.
The United States began to vigorously study synthetic rubber after World War II, and polymer ethylene rubber, which is almost the same as natural rubber, was not developed until 1955.
"Now I can't find synthetic rubber, so I can only do it myself. Synthetic rubber should be similar to plastic. I don't know if Little Beckland can develop it." Chen Qiang started his idea of ​​Little Beckland again.
Before the war ended or synthetic rubber was developed, Chen Qiang had to temporarily give up his plan to open a sports goods company.
However, when Chen Qiang thought about making basketball shoes in the future, he couldn't help but think of the new basketball league.
In recent months, Chen Qiang has completely handed over the New York Knicks to team manager Edward Ireland to manage, and Chen Qiang has never participated in basketball games in the new league.
Although the war affected the sports industry in the United States, the New Basketball League attracted a lot of spectators with its new rules and new styles of play. At least after the first season, it gained a foothold in the sports industry in the United States. The New Basketball League then held another draft event, which was also very successful.
Now that the second season of the new league has begun, the teams are still the same, and there is no increase or decrease. After all, in this special era, major sports leagues are almost in a state of half-dead, and wealthy bosses will not invest in new teams, so there are no new teams to join.
There have been a large number of players, and the teams are increasingly adapting to new rules and new styles of play, so the player equipment has also been updated, which makes the game more exciting.
In general, although the new basketball league has not expanded, its overall development is still very good. After all, this is a war period, and it is good that things like literature or sports can maintain the status quo.
Of course, Chen Qiang would not be satisfied with his standing still during the war. At this time, he planned to show off a new weapon, that is, the All-Star Game.
...
In New York, leaders of various teams gathered together again, and in front of them was a plan for hosting the All-Star Game.
"All-Star Game? Is this a baseball major league?" Cardinal Auerbach asked.
"The inspiration does come from the All-Star Game of MLB, but there are many changes in specific details." Chen Qiang replied.
Among the four major sports leagues in the United States, the first All-Star Game was the baseball mlb League. As early as 1933, mlb held the first Baseball All-Star Game in Chicago. Then, except in 1945, mlb held the All-Star Game every year.
The first NBA draft in history was held in 1951. The NBA, which had just been in office for four years, had already begun to decline. So the top NBA executives decided to follow the example of MLB and select the best players to hold a confrontation match. Finally, the first NBA All-Star Game was held in Boston Gardens.
In 1943, the All-Star Game of mlb had already gone through ten years. So when senior executives of each team saw Chen Qiang's planning for the All-Star Game, the first thing that came to mind was the All-Star Game of mlb.
Everyone continued to read patiently and found the difference between Chen Qiang's planning letter.
"Skills Challenge? What skills are you challenging?"
"Shooting competition? Is it better than who shoots?"
"Slam dunk contest? It sounds like the threshold is a bit high, but ordinary players can't deduct baskets."
Everyone started to discuss and exchanged opinions with each other.
Chen Qiang picked up the coffee in his hand, took a sip, and looked at everyone with a smile on his face.
After a while, the discussion gradually stopped, and Chen Qiang stood up and began to explain his plan.
"You all should have seen that the All-Star Game I planned is not simply to find two teams of players to play a confrontation. In addition to the confrontation, there are many other contents. In addition, I also plan to invite famous singers to perform live. I want to turn our All-Star Game into a basketball event and a festival for fans!"
Chapter completed!