Find Out Why Over 80% of the Footwear Industry Belongs to FDRA

Find Out Why Over 80% of the Footwear Industry Belongs to FDRA

FDRA is celebrating it’s 70th Anniversary!!

Since its establishment by the industry in 1944, the world has changed and so has footwear.  FDRA has been at the forefront every step of the way promoting industry priorities and leading initiatives in Washington D.C., and helping the industry find solutions to challenges.  In 2014 the footwear industry is facing its biggest challenges to date from sourcing and social compliance to product safety, customs and intellectual property issues.  That’s why both multinational footwear companies and small family owned distributors and retailers rely on FDRA’s expertise now more than ever.  If you are not a FDRA member we encourage you to learn more about what we do below, and contact us to see how we can help you navigate challenges and boost your business.  

Click here to learn about all the benefits of a FDRA membership in our new brochure.

What FDRA does is simple:

1. It boosts its members business through educational events and exclusive business intelligence products on a variety of important footwear regulations and trends – business intelligence which helps provide footwear companies clarity in a time of great change. FDRA serves both small family owned businesses and global footwear companies.

2. It advocates for lower costs for consumers and the industry by pushing for the elimination of footwear tariffs – allowing its members to sell more shoes and create jobs.

FDRA is the industry’s thought leader and intelligence hub on customs, product safety, social compliance, regulations, sales data, as well as important consumer and innovation trends.  FDRA produces numerous vital publications, as well as industry events and conferences to keep our members and the industry at large informed, such as:

  • Monthly newsletters including the Intellectual Property Digest, Customs Report, Sourcing and Compliance Bulletin, and a quarterly Product Safety Bulletin for our members.
  • The weekly FDRA ‘week in review’ for both U.S. members and factory members, which contains FDRA’s import data, commodity reports, and monthly sales analysis
  • FDRA produces a weekly footwear sales survey to provide its members a weekly snapshot on the state of the footwear industry.
  • FDRA provides its members with private and definitive customs classification guidance for footwear design and development.
  • FDRA uses data and its experience to help its members develop robust sourcing and social compliance strategies and programs.
  • Engaging webinars on hot topics for the industry such as technology that boosts online sales, consumer trends and sourcing analysis.
  • The world renowned Footwear Sourcing Forecast, which attempts to show where global shoe production will be headed in 5 years.
  • The Footwear Factory Survey Report, which provides key insights into factory issues in China from social compliance to health and safety issues to worker retention.
  • The industry leading Responsible Footwear Forum (RFF), a workshop held throughout China and in the US, which helps to enhance social compliance at factories worldwide while delivering key information to footwear companies, factory managers and representatives on social and brand compliance issues.
  • The highly praised Product Safety and Environment (PSE) workshop, a workshop held in several Chinese cities and in the US that educates the industry on new product safety standards and regulations as well as how to advance and increase environmentally sustainable manufacturing and distribution of footwear.
  • The Leather 101 Workshop, FDRA partners with the BLC Leather Technology Centre to provide the industry with full knowledge of the sourcing, treatment and selling of leather footwear.
  • The largest footwear event of its kind in the US, FDRA’s Footwear Traffic Distribution and Customs (FTDC) Conference attracts almost 200 footwear executives, experts and service providers from around the world to discuss new customs regulations and issues impacting global footwear distribution.
  • FDRA has created a forward thinking “IDEAS LAB” to help the industry and public understand new technologies pushing and changing footwear in the 21st Century.

FDRA fights to lower shoe costs for our members and consumers. Footwear is an essential item for every American, but it is taxed at one of the highest rates of any consumer product – up to almost 70 percent per pair! FDRA drives a variety of innovating and hard-hitting initiatives to lower shoe costs including:

  • Leading the effort to enact the Affordable Footwear Act (AFA), a bill that would eliminate approximately 35% of all import taxes on shoes. If signed into law, a child’s canvas sneaker could drop from $10 to $7.
  • Advocating for the Miscellaneous Tariff Bill (MTB), which temporarily suspends import taxes on a variety of footwear. This bill saves footwear companies, and the industry at large, millions a year; savings passed on to consumers and used to create jobs.
  • Pushing multilateral and bilateral trade agreements, agreements with specific countries that would permanently eliminate import taxes on shoes. FDRA is currently involved in the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) talks that would end import taxes on shoes made in Vietnam and many other countries.