After browsing the shops around the Parkson I came to the conclusion they all seem to sell fake or B-Quality shoes for a very high price.. We're looking at leather trekking shoes from Columbia/Lowa/Jack Wolfskin so Western brands.

Does anyone know a specialised shop for those shoes in Kunming?

Remco.

There are usually these on sale in the big shopping malls.

Go to some of the many camping stores. Several are on Baita Lu 白塔路 between Renmin Donglu 人民东路 and Dongfang Donglu 东方东路 for a start. Check both sides of the street. Many more in other parts of the city. You may, however, have trouble finding large sizes.

I know you didn't mention them but I passed by 2 stores selling Merrell, a well known sports shoe company. One was on the left side of QingNian Lu, going south from RenMin Zhong Lu. They are expensive so I "guess" they are the real thing.

Just the shoes they sell at the big department stores are the one I put in question, if you look closer you see mistakes, glue everywhere etc. So the price is right but the quality is substandard.

Good option to go to the camping stores, and as the size needed is 35 it shouldn't be a problem.

I'll keep you informed... just got back from the new era shopping mall and saw many unknown brands, so I'm even more confused now.

Hiking and mountain climbing are popular here. Many stores carry the needed supplies for these activities. And, since it's China, you will find Chinese brands as well as international ones.

If you could take a Chinese friend who has the same interests and some experience in buying equipment, that would of course be ideal. Size 35 should be easy to find.

A couple such stores are also located on Longxiang Jie 龙翔街 near Jianshi Lu 建设路。

just an update, we succeeded finding some shoes. Even the shop gave a big discount :-)

focussed on one brand, looked up the website and they had the dealers listed in kunming: www.vasque.com/international

Quick calling around we found the shop having size 35, so we can go on holiday together to Vietnam next week!

And which store was that and where?

We did go to:

Yunling Outdoor
No.4 Floor 1 Nanyuan Leatherware City Nanba Road
Kunming
Phone: 86 871 3542849
Fax: 86 871 3542849

They only sell 2 brands, Vasque and some sort of Polar ... which I didn't know about.

This place has a range of shoes for outdoor stuff and it is all genuine: www.gokunming.com/[...]

Expect to pay even higher than the Western suggested retail price, but they've got all kinds of outdoor gear and it's all real (as far as I can tell after careful inspection): Arc Teryx, Patagonia, Black Diamond, etc.

It's owned by the brother of local adventurer and frequent subject of GoKunming blog posts Jin Feibao and has been in business since 1995.