FDRA Membership Insight—Factory

Thank for for considering membership with FDRA. We are proud that many top footwear factories are FDRA members, and welcome you to join. FDRA is the footwear industry’s trade and business association. Over 80% of the entire U.S. footwear industry are members from fashion to athletic, flip flops to slippers — both small companies and global corporations. View our full member list.

FDRA helps connect factories to brands and helps factories stay up-to-date with vital marketplace intelligence on changes and shifts that impact production. Here are 4 ways we do that for our factory members every day:

1. Business Information and Intelligence

Weekly updates, quick-to-read newsletters with deeper dive options, our podcast, and working groups give you important data, analysis, and insights on issues and trends. Newsletters include:

Footwear Week-in-Review — weekly industry news
Sourcing and Compliance Bulletin — import data by segment, footwear material prices, sourcing trends [in English]
Footwear Retail Recap — shoe store sales data & total US sales data, Canadian shoe sales, footwear retail prices, [in English]

FDRA hosts the footwear industry’s popular podcast Shoe-In Show, a free radio program [in English] with guest interviews covering important topics, insights, best practices, and trends — join 1,000 industry executives and professionals listening in each week from your phone or desktop.

2. Solution-Focused Products

FDRA develops platforms and products that help factory members address their biggest daily challenges by providing key resources, reports, and tools that clarify regulations and laws. These products help members cut costs, improve productivity, and boost decision making.

The Material Exchange — digital material platform cutting design and development costs while increasing speed-to-market
FootwearInnovation.com — news hub for all things footwear innovation: design, development, materials, production, retail
Digital Product Safety Website — search footwear chemical and physical testing requirements by country
The Footwear Sourcing and Compliance Center — footwear sourcing data, material costs, compliance training, trends

3. Networking and Training

FDRA holds over 30 events worldwide each year — webinars, workshops, summits, and seminars covering a range of footwear topics and issues. Our key event for factories feature industry leader and expert insight focusing on unpacking challenges and actionable takeaways, as well as networking time to connect with brands at our annual Footwear Executive Summit each March in Hong Kong.

4. Cost Savings — Fighting to Eliminate Footwear Duties

FDRA is the footwear industry’s voice in Washington, DC. Everyday we fight unfair burdens that hinder growth and innovation. Your membership helps us lower costs across our supply chains.