Imported luxury shoes stumble on new quality rules

Do you collect luxury leather, suede, or satin shoes, or are you a big sneakerhead? You may have to wait for several months for a new pair.

- Varuni Khosla & Dhirendra Kumar

Shelves at luxury shoe boutiques across India may turn sparse in the coming weeks as India's mandatory licensing regulations that kicked in August are increasing costs and delaying stock arrivals.

The Quality Control Orders (QCOs) for footwear require luxury shoemakers to send their products to the Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for Indian Standards Institution (ISI) certification. Factories making such shoes, irrespective of the global location, also need audits, product checks, and the BIS certification.

To allow the industry to exhaust unsold stock, the manufacturers certified by the BIS or those who have applied for certification were permitted to sell, display, or offer old stock produced or imported before 1 August until 30 June 2025. The deadline was later extended till 31 July 2026.

Since then, several luxury shoe brands in India are facing delays either in compliances or in receiving the certification status. Many companies, in anticipation of this disruption, had bought a lot of inventory prior to 1 January 2024, but even that is now running out or going out of style.