Payless Review

Payless has been an active FDRA member for over 30 years, and we are excited to be able to connect with new employees so we can help you do your job easier, faster and more effectively.  You have full and free access to all of FDRA’s reports, products and newsletters and services.  We are here to help you, so please plug in and take advantage!

To better understand how you can get tools and resources you need, please take a look at 5 ways we can help you below. If you want to get deeper insights and recent examples of products and services by department, keep  scrolling down.  

Who is FDRA?

We are the footwear industry’s business and trade association. We serves the full footwear supply chain and deliver you innovative products, training and consulting on footwear design and development, sourcing and compliance, trade and customs, advocacy, and consumer and sales trend analysis for retailers selling shoes around the world. Basically, every department will find use and benefits. We also fight to lower your duty costs so you can sell more shoes to your customers at a lower cost to you and them.

Our job is to make your job easier.  Here’s how:

  1. Ask Us for Help 24/7. We are something like specialized footwear consultants, but free as part of membership – just consider Team FDRA part of your team. Our members call or email us for help with questions from customs classifications to retail data and trends and everything in between – we are here for you.  Our goal is to get you answers you need to make key business decisions within the same business day. That is why our tag line is “Intelligence to Act.” If you don’t know where to turn, call us at 202-737-5660 or email us at apolk@fdra.org or mpriest@fdra.org – WE CAN HELP!                             hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhs
  2. Get Involved: Discuss Challenges and Solutions with Industry Peers. Join an FDRA working group (Customs & Trade, Sourcing and Compliance, Innovation, Product Safety, or Government Relations) – we hold quarterly calls and host meetings where we provide critical updates to your work, and allow industry professionals to discuss their challenges and hear solutions from their peers. Each call and meeting gives great insights and best practices. You are welcome to join any working group calls or meetings you like, just register when we alert you of upcoming calls and events via email.
  3. Read FDRA Newsletters and Reports. Each week we send out updates and newsletters that give you important data, analysis and insights on issues and trends. Our major newsletters include the Footwear Week-in-Review (covering industry news each week), FDRA Customs Report (new footwear customs rulings, forms, and updates), Sourcing and Compliance Bulletin (import data by segment, footwear material prices, sourcing trends), IP Digest (new footwear designs and patents), and Footwear Retail Recap (shoe store sales data, total US sales data, Canadian shoe sales, footwear prices, and employment updates). We design our newsletters to take less than 5 minutes to read to stay up-to-date on issues as well as specific reports if you want a deeper dive on a specific issue. Click here to see a full list of products we provide to our members.

To access all reports and documents in our newsletters and on FDRA’s Intel Center on FDRA.org, please register for a user name and password here: http://fdra.org/footwear-intel-center/

  1. Attend Footwear Events. FDRA holds over 30 events worldwide each year from webinars to workshops and summits to seminars on a range of footwear topics and issues. Our events focus on deep-dives into challenges and feature industry leaders and experts so you get actionable takeaways.  We also build in networking time so you can connect with peers across the industry.

  2. Listen to Shoe-in Show.  Every Monday, a new 30 min episode of FDRA’s podcast goes live. The show is about the “in’s and out’s” of our industry. The show features footwear executives and experts talking about various aspects of our industry – giving insights and tips that explain how our works, what is selling, as well as their personal footwear journey – we also have a lot of fun and laughs along the way – which is why we have thousands of listeners who catch the episodes as they go to and from work, during their breaks or while they travel.  You can listen to past episodes online or subscribe to Shoe-in Show on iTunes.


Again, please take advantage of FDRA resources! We are ready to serve – please put us to work!

Deep Dive – Recent Examples of Products, Monthly Reports and Events:

Design, Product Development and IP:

– Materials and innovation summit – over 100 designers, product development/materials professionals (from nearly 30 brands) attended our material summit last year, we expect an increase this year.  Click here to see the type of speakers and topics we cover: http://conta.cc/2vIIvNv  The 2018 Summit will again be at NC State in September.

– Footwear Design Summit: https://conta.cc/2LsdUHU

– Monthly Design and IP digest: http://conta.cc/2ksP1Av

– Monthly Material costs: http://fdra.org/footwear-materials-cost-report/

– Smart Shoe Series – over 2018 we will hold a number of seminars, webinars and some workshops on 3D design and development to a number of innovations impacting how we design, develop and produce shoes.  An example: http://conta.cc/2GPOTUY

– Material Exchange Project – we are helping to build a digitial material database for brands…making it easier to select the right material and communicate with suppliers…cutting costs and man hours, while increasing certainty. See the Intro to ME video here. 

 

Customs:

– Rulings Booklet 2017: http://conta.cc/2jbCCAL

– Customs Report (monthly): http://conta.cc/2Et3OWR

– FTDC – annual traffic and customs conference where 200 supply chain and customs professionals network and learn: http://fdra.org/ftdc/

– Total footwear import and customs center – from classification of samples, to labeling requirements to
trade agreement info, its all here, free for members: https://www.footwearcustoms.com/

– Annual Customs Meeting: http://conta.cc/2ErBJ23

 

Product Safety:

– quarterly updates: http://conta.cc/2ksNYkb

– FDRA’s Global Footwear Testing Guide (online): http://globalfootweartesting.com/

– Risk Management (chemical fail rate) report: http://files.constantcontact.com/569ca1a9001/a69dd886-61ae-463b-b526-0e6bfc4e7eeb.pdf

– Summit: http://conta.cc/2G9dHXB

 

Sourcing, Supply Chain and social compliance:

– Monthly newsletter: http://conta.cc/2kiJXg0

– Material costs: http://fdra.org/footwear-materials-cost-report/

– Import data by category: http://fdra.org/footwear-imports/

– Yearly Sourcing Report: http://fdra.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/FDRA-Footwear-Sourcing-Report-2017.pdf

– Factory Training online (FDRA provides members with a set of compliance courses for its compliance team and/or factories): https://store.elevateelearning.com/

– RFP/Code of Conduct: http://fdra.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Code-of-Conduct-Final-March-2015.pdf

– Annual Summit: http://conta.cc/2ueMs7o

– Quarterly update calls: http://conta.cc/2ksXynd

– Trade and Politics Newsletter: http://conta.cc/2EqwfVw

 

Working Groups:

– http://fdra.org/workinggroups/

– http://conta.cc/2ksBNUt

 

Retail:

National Shoe Sales Data (each month): http://fdra.org/fdras-footwear-sales-analysis/

National Shoe Store Employment Data (each month): http://fdra.org/u-s-shoe-store-employment/

National Shoe Prices At Retail (each month): http://fdra.org/footwear-retail-price-monitor/

Shoeconomy:

A visual look at our footwear industry: http://shoeconomy.us/

Shoe-in Show:

Continual learning and engagement – industry leaders talking to industry leaders: http://www.shoeinshow.com/