That was a difficult period of entrepreneurship.
2005 was my first year in Guangzhou, and my savings were still far from enough to buy a room.
Like many newly graduated college students, I rented an apartment and lived in Guangzhou.

The most important piece of equipment for producing silicone foot is a vacuum machine. At that time, I bought a second-hand vacuum pump.
A precise electronic scale was also essential. I purchased three different types of silicone and a release agent. In the early days, the release agent was petroleum jelly–based.
AB silicone was translucent milky white, and silicones from different manufacturers had different curing times.

Relying on mold-making techniques I learned online, and in order to save silicone material, I started with making a single finger. After several days of experimentation, I made more than a dozen silicone fingers. Some materials were too hard, some too soft, and some did not fully cure.
I carefully took notes and recorded every detail: ambient temperature, silicone material weight, curing time, hardness, color, and so on.

After about two more weeks, I finally produced a silicone finger that looked very close to my own finger, both in color and hardness. At that moment, I was very happy. When a person is engaged in work they truly enjoy, they don’t feel tired.
I optimistically estimated that I was about to succeed.

So I bought more silicone, preparing to produce a complete pair of silicone feet. Unfortunately, one afternoon the landlord suddenly came to visit. He said that nearby neighbors had reported me quite a few times for making too much noise, affecting their living environment. When the landlord saw the vacuum machine in my room, he decided that I had to move out.

At that time, my savings were basically exhausted. It was a very hard period. Although I had initially mastered mold-making techniques, I had not earned a single cent. And I had no choice but to find another place to live—somewhere without neighbors. The higher rent was a major challenge for me, but moving was the only option.

In a remote area on the outskirts of the city, at the final stop of a bus route, I found a warehouse. Fortunately, the rent was not expensive. I moved all the equipment used for silicone production there.

Silicone feet are a somewhat sensitive product, so I tried my best to avoid letting too many people know about it. Whenever someone asked what I was doing, I would answer that I was making silicone gaskets or plastic toys.

After several initial failures, over the course of about two weeks, I finally made a real pair of silicone feet. Of course, they were molded from my own feet. They were not perfect—during the demolding process, some small particles stuck to the mold, so the details of the silicone feet were not flawless, with some uneven and rough spots.
Technical improvement is a continuous process, and later these problems were gradually resolved.