Luxury Footwear Faces Sole-Searching Moment in India's Quality Control Crackdown

European high-end fashion brands such as Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior are finding it difficult to increase their presence in the footwear market in India owing to the requirement for compulsory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification. Introduced from July 2023, the regulation makes it a prerequisite for foreign footwear to receive the ISI mark before entering the Indian market. It is most difficult for women's footwear since each new material has to be retested. In spite of industry demands for easing, the government has stuck to its guns. This quality control step is meant to safeguard local production and guarantee product safety, but it has posed major hurdles for foreign luxury footwear producers who want to access the Indian market.

 

Source: Business Standard