Starting on August 1, 2024, only footwear that complies with the quality and safety standards set by the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) can be sold in India. These standards apply to 24 categories of footwear, including those sold by luxury and sports brands, regardless of price-range or country-of-origin
Under BIS rules, footwear makers must display an ISI stamp (Indian Standards Institution) on products sold in India. To get this stamp, they must send their footwear to a BIS lab in India for quality check.
Additionally, factories producing these shoes, regardless of their global location, will require certification by BIS authorities and undergo regular BIS audits and inspections.
According to sources in the luxury industry, while obtaining BIS certification for brand owned factories is feasible, certifying outsourced factories remains challenging. "We can comply with BIS rules at factories we own, but following the full BIS certification procedure at outsourced factories such as those in other parts of Europe and Asia will be cumbersome," explained the source who requested anonymity.
Consequently, foreign maisons will be forced to limit the variety of footwear that they can bring to India as they can sell only products made in BIS-certified factories.
The BIS standards address a variety of footwear attributes, including sole thickness, flexibility, and material quality and the requirements apply to all items within a category. For example, all sports shoes, whether made for walking, running or hiking, must meet the general quality standards set for the sports shoes category.
India’s Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade notified footwear makers to initiate the process to gain BIS certification in 2020. After several extensions, BIS certification was made mandatory for large and medium-sized maisons in July 2023, with smaller businesses given until August 2024 to comply.
India is the world's second-largest footwear producer after China, yet it imports about $900 million worth of footwear, annually. Approximately 80% of these imports come from China, Vietnam, Indonesia, and Bangladesh. However, China is the single largest exporter of footwear to India. The primary goal of mandating BIS certification for footwear sales in India was to curb the inflow of sub-standard footwear from China.
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