How Woodland, Puma, Adidas and other international shoe brands may face 'smartphone industry kind' import issues

The premium footwear industry in India may reportedly face issues similar to smartphone and PC makers in the country. Wondering how? According to a report in Economic Times, the footwear industry is facing similar sourcing issues as the

Bureau of Indian Standards

(

BIS

) has not certified their factories in China and Vietnam, a requirement for allowing imports from them.

Earlier this year, the footwear as a category came under BIS Quality Control Orders (QCO) for leather shoes. While for sports shoes, sandals and slippers it's effective from January 2024. As per QCO norms, all factories manufacturing these and some specified key components, such as rubber, PVC or polyurethane soles and heels, need to be certified by BIS to be able to import and sell such products.
BIS has reportedly not yet certified sourcing factories in China and Vietnam from where the bulk of imported shoes are sourced for India, according to the chief executives of five leading brands who didn't want to be named. These executives told ET that BIS officials have told them they are not keen on certifying the factories in these markets and will be selective about manufacturing units in Southeast Asia such as Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia also, as some of those might be owned by the Chinese like in Vietnam.
Nike

reportedly had written to the government, asking it to certify supplier factories in Indonesia and Vietnam so that it can continue to import from them. Some of the premium and luxury brands import almost their entire footwear line-up, whereas others like

Woodland

,

Puma

and Adidas get their high-end and technical shoes from overseas. Vietnam, China and a few Southeast Asian nations are the main sources for such imports.

Promote 'made in India' in shoe industry
A senior government official said that the idea is to promote domestic manufacturing, considering that a large amount of low-quality footwear was being imported from China. He said the QCO for 24 footwear and related products were notified in October 2020 and the industry, especially the large and medium-scale players, had already sought multiple extensions.