EU proposes new consumer rights on sustainability and a ban on greenwashing
The European Commission is proposing to amend the European Union Consumer Rights Directive to oblige traders to provide consumers with information on products’ durability and reparability with the aim of empowering consumers for the green transition. The measure is one of many included in a wider package called the European ...
Italian self-assessment ESG program to start beta trials
A software package allowing the self-assessment of companies’ environmental, social and governance (ESG) performances is scheduled to be rolled out for beta tests at several Italian companies over the coming weeks. The indicative number of companies involved in the trials could be four to six, according to the developers of ...
Brazil renews footwear export program for 2 years
Abicalçados, the Brazilian footwear association, and ApexBrasil, the Brazilian agency for the promotion of exports and investments, signed the renewal of a two-year agreement to promote Brazilian footwear. The program simply called Brazilian Footwear was launched more than two decades ago.
C-Suite interview: Covid-19 has masked the surge of regional integration in Asia-Pacific
In an exclusive interview with Shoe Intelligence, William Wong, the founder and head of the Hong Kong-based footwear company Goddess International, and the representative of the Confederation of International Footwear Association (CIFA), sheds light on the impact of regional integration in Asia-Pacific, the growing role of the region in design ...
Italian shoemakers ask for aid to mitigate the impact of Ukrainian war
The Italian footwear association Assocalzaturifici is asking for state aid to mitigate the negative impact Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has had on business. “We feel like we are back in March 2020, in the middle of the pandemic,” said the president of Assocalzaturifici, Siro Badon, during a roundtable at Micam, ...
Italian footwear industry revenues rise more than expected in 2021
Revenues of Italian footwear manufacturers rose by 18.7 percent in 2021 to €12.7 billion, according to an estimate made by Confindustria Moda’s research center. The estimate is above a prior forecast of a 16.2 percent rise for 2021, but remains 11 percent below the revenues achieved in 2019, the last ...
Portugal adopts stricter rules for the labeling of leather substitutes
The Portuguese government adopted new regulations (Decreto-Lei n.o 3/2022) at the end of January 2022 to label all textile products that are man-made to replace genuine leather and also established fines for companies that do not comply. The new law defines the term leather and specifies its use. Accordingly, the ...
PriceRunner sues Google for at least €2.1bn
The Swedish price comparison firm PriceRunner is suing Google for a preliminary amount of almost €2.1 billion at the Patent and Market Court in Stockholm. It claims that the U.S. company is overcharging European consumers, especially for apparel and footwear.
Portuguese shoemakers to invest €140m to bolster their competitiveness
The Portuguese footwear industry will invest €140 million over the next three years through Cluster do Calçado e Moda (the footwear and fashion cluster), a progam led by Apiccaps, the Portuguese footwear, components and leather goods manufacturers association, and the Portuguese footwear technological center, CTCP, to become “the international reference ...
Clarks 2-month strike over
The troubled British footwear company Clarks has reached an agreement with about 100 workers to end a two-month strike at its distribution centre in Somerset.