Why did a town making 25 billion socks almost fail over the 'last centimeter'?

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Datang Town in Zhuji, Zhejiang Province, is one of the world's largest sock-producing hubs, manufacturing around 25 billion pairs annually — nearly one third of global output. 

But as labor costs rose and skilled workers became harder to find, the industry faced a critical bottleneck in its most labor-intensive step: toe sewing.

This episode of Small Towns, Linking the World, documents how local manufacturers adopted integrated smart machines and digital systems to stabilize production, offering a case study of how China's manufacturing sector is shifting from labor-driven growth to efficiency, reliability, and industrial upgrading.