FDRA President & CEO Statement on Duty Delay
FDRA President & CEO Matt Priest released the following statement in response to the Trump Administration announcement that it will be allowing duty payments to be postponed 90 days on certain imports.

"The American footwear industry applauds the Administration for taking this key step toward securing much-needed financial liquidity for our industry during this historic crisis. Our companies and workers are struggling right now and we need this action more than ever. My sincere thanks goes out to all the shoe executives, workers, and other stakeholders who engaged with the Trump Administration and Members of Congress through letters and calls to help drive this important action tonight. We asked for this delay on March 10th and are happy to see it come to fruition. To all in our industry, the fight is not over. We will keep doing all we can in support of all American shoe companies during this time."
5 Fast Footwear Import Insights
Current Data Released is for February 2020
    1.   Total footwear imports sank to the lowest February volume in sixteen years.
  2.      Total footwear imports sank -20.8% in February, the sixth straight decline since List 4A duties were implemented and the biggest drop in nearly four years.
     3.    The average landed cost of all footwear imports rose 8.5% year-over-year, the fastest in 22 months and second-fastest in 47 months.
      4.    Imports from China plunged again while average duties per pair from China surged again.
     5 .    January & February data hint full-year footwear imports will tumble sharply, while duties will climb to another record in 2020.

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Why Coronavirus Will Dramatically Change The Retail Supply Chain, And How
The novel coronavirus—officially SARS-CoV-2, which causes the COVID-19 disease—is causing drastic changes to the supply chain, a key retail operation already in flux. 

For the last three years, geopolitical turmoil and shifting priorities have been setting the stage for gradual changes. Studies show that there has been a marked shift away from China to countries like Vietnam, Bangladesh, India and Mexico. However, the coronavirus has accelerated that action despite the fact that China seems to be recovering from COVID-19.
Foundry, one of the leading creative software developers is creating new tools and workflows to more quickly communicate creative vision from initial concept to finished product. In their latest webinar, Digital 3D Product Creation, they teach about product offerings including Colorway and Modo, and how the features in these tools can help improve design workflow, visual communication and messaging of design intent in a more robust and streamlined way.
New GS1 US Raw Materials Guideline Supports Streamlined Sourcing and a Circular Economy 
GS1 US ®  has published the “ Best Practice Guideline for Exchanging Raw Material Attributes ,” created by apparel and general merchandise leaders to help industry utilize standards in their upstream supply chain practices. By leveraging GS1 Standards to efficiently share information about product components in an effort to speed up raw material sourcing decisions, industry can better support sustainability initiatives and enhance transparency for consumers. The guideline addresses retail industry challenges associated with the time-consuming process of mapping raw material data attributes from multiple sources.

Developed by members of the GS1 US Apparel and General Merchandise Initiative, the guideline offers a common vocabulary that defines attributes in four primary material types—knit fabric, woven fabric, leather and synthetic material. It also helps supply chain partners categorize like-kind materials using a common set of definitions which will contribute to streamlined sourcing decisions, clearer purchasing specifications and reduced time to market.
Footwear Materials Cost Report
A current issue that catches our attention this month: Container rates
While costs of a range of commodities used in footwear manufacturing and distribution are sharply lower in response to the coronavirus outbreak, the fallout from COVID-19 also has been profoundly disruptive to the global supply chain, especially for importers heavily reliant on Chinese manufacturing.
 

As Coronavirus Spotlights Supply Chain Flaws, a WTO: 2020 trade levels could rival Great Depression
Estimates from the World Trade Organization (WTO) show global merchandise trade declining in every region of the world and across most sectors of the economy in 2020. In an optimistic scenario, global trade would decline by 13% year over year (YoY) — about the same as the drop seen during the Great Recession, the WTO said.

In a pessimistic scenario, trade would drop 32% or more YoY, similar to what occurred during the Great Depression over three years. The wide margin between scenarios is due to "the unprecedented nature" of the coronavirus pandemic, the WTO said. But the organization predicts trade levels will likely be worse than they were during the Great Recession.