FDRA Is Helping Shoe Brands Map Their Supply Chains

The Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America is making it easier for brands and retailers to keep their supply chains more visible.

The industry trade group on Wednesday launched a new tool to help brands map out all four levels of their supply chain in order to comply with potential new traceability regulations related to forced labor and sustainability.

While there is already some level of oversight within the first and second tiers of shoe making (which centers around creating processed components and assembling a final product), the European Union is signaling a move towards more stringent visibility at the fourth and third tiers of shoemaking, which center around the farms and mines that provide raw materials and the centers that refine them, respectively.

“Typically, brands have never really had to go all the way down to see where materials may be mined from or grown,” said Andy Polk, senior vice president of the FDRA in an interview with FN. “It’s a huge difficulty and it requires a roadmap.”

FDRA’s new tool, which is available to download for free, breaks a shoe down into several components to help guide brands through the mapping process. The tool is currently available to trace the supply chain background of the upper and lining materials of shoes and will be expanded to include outsoles and insocks in the spring of 2025.

In addition to helping companies comply with regulations, FDRA expects the new tool to help educate consumers about the products they are purchasing by helping create scannable, digital profile for each product that is fully mapped. FDRA also plans to use this tool to help inform policy makers about realistic requirements for traceability in the shoe industry. While footwear and apparel have different supply chain systems, both are often lumped together when it comes to traceability requirements.

According to Polk, it can take companies between 12 and 24 months to map out their supply chains, so he encourages brands to get started as soon as possible.

“My hope is this will provide the roadmap that gives people the confidence to start to fill in the gaps and really start to get ahead of the game and be on the offense as an industry, instead of playing more defense when it comes to these regulations,” Polk said.