Safeguarding Consumers' Legitimate Rights And Interests Open Solicitation Of Opinions On The Formulation Of Children'S Sports Shoes Standards

At present, the children's sports shoes market is booming and has become the largest category of children's shoes, accounting for about 50% of the market. However, compared with the booming consumer market, the lack of standard supply of children's sports shoes in China has caused problems for enterprise production and consumer purchase, even endangering the healthy growth of children due to quality problems. A few days ago, the reporter learned from the China Leather Association (hereinafter referred to as "China Leather Association") that according to the group standard formulation plan of China Leather Association, the group standard of Children's Sports Shoes has been drafted, and a draft for comments has been formed, which is currently open for comments. Children's Sports Shoes (Draft for Comments) (hereinafter referred to as "Draft for Comments") defines "children's sports shoes", and puts forward requirements for the quality of children's sports shoes from seven aspects, namely shoe size, shoe last, design, and safety performance, and "suggests that e-commerce products give a suitable range in the promotional page". It can be said that the introduction of the opinion draft has made it clear that "children's shoes are not reduced versions of adult shoes", providing guidance for consumers in purchasing children's shoes.

According to the results of the seventh population census in 2020, the total population of children and adolescents aged 0-14 in China is about 250 million, and the consumption expenditure of children has accounted for 25% of the total family income. With the adjustment of China's fertility policy, the number of children and the proportion of consumption will continue to increase. Children's shoes are necessities in children's life and are closely related to the healthy growth of children.

China Leather Association said that children's sports shoes are the largest category of children's shoes, accounting for about 50% of the market. The vigorous development of children's sports shoes market, on the one hand, benefited from the improvement of domestic consumption level, parents pay more attention to the healthy growth of children, and the demand for high-quality children's shoes increases; On the other hand, with the improvement of domestic brand awareness, more and more children's shoes enterprises begin to pay attention to brand construction and product quality, increase the effective supply of children's shoes products, and promote benign competition in the market. In order to guide and standardize the children's sports shoes market and improve the product quality, it is urgent to formulate a children's sports shoes standard according to the current situation of children's sports shoes in China and the common needs of most children's sports shoes, and on this basis, put forward additional requirements for children's professional sports shoes such as children's running shoes, children's basketball shoes, etc.

However, in fact, many children's shoes are produced and sold in comparison with the shoes of adults, making the market a mixture of good and bad, with uneven quality. "Children's shoes are not reduced versions of adult shoes. Children's shoes and adult shoes are quite different in structural design, material selection, safety, shoe last and other aspects. Compared with the booming consumer market, the supply of children's sports shoes standards in China is obviously insufficient," said experts from China Leather Association. Specifically, the deficiencies are mainly reflected in two aspects:

First, there are few standards. At present, only QB/T4331-2021 Children's Travel Shoes is the standard for children's shoes in leisure sports, and the standard for children's shoes in professional sports is even more blank, basically showing the situation that children's shoes share the same standard with adult professional sports shoes, such as basketball and volleyball shoes standard GB/T 24152-2018 Basketball and volleyball professional sports shoes, football shoes standard GB/T 19706-2015 Football Shoes, Light Mountaineering Shoes QB/T 4553-2013, Light Mountaineering Shoes, etc.

Second, the existing standard indicators cannot meet the needs of market regulation and consumption upgrading. For example, as the most widely implemented standard in the field of children's sports shoes, the standardized object of QB/T 4331-2021 Children's Travel Shoes is leisure sports children's shoes for daily and low-intensity sports wear. Its core role is to keep the basic quality baseline of leisure sports children's shoes. Therefore, the standard requirements are mainly the wearability requirements commonly seen in the quality control of shoes such as folding, abrasion resistance, peeling, etc. The functional indicators such as breathability, anti-skid, shock absorption and waterproof claimed by children's sports shoes on the market at present, as well as the unique performance of special sports shoes such as basketball shoes and running shoes, cannot be assessed. In addition, the standard of professional sports shoes shared by children and adults basically does not distinguish the difference between children's shoes and adult shoes, and cannot effectively guide the quality of children's shoes. "Therefore, the lagging standard of children's sports shoes has made it impossible to comprehensively regulate and guide the children's sports shoes market, which not only affects consumption, but also endangers the healthy growth of children due to some quality problems," said an expert of China Leather Association.

Therefore, as a special product standard for children's sports shoes, the opinion draft fully considers the needs of industry development and personalized high-quality consumption, and the indicator requirements are more comprehensive and targeted, effectively filling the technical requirements of current standards in style design, logo labeling, functional indicator testing, etc. For example, with the development and popularization of intelligent wearable technology, for children's sports shoes with information collection function, in order to strengthen information security, the opinion draft also provides corresponding recommendation requirements; The difference in shoe sizes of different brands or categories has caused great trouble for consumers to choose and buy products, which is likely to lead to the problem of after-sales return. In order to effectively reduce this problem, the opinion draft has given the recommendation requirements, and it is suggested that e-commerce products should be given a suitable range in the propaganda page; For products with certain safety risks, in order to strengthen the supervision awareness of parents, the standard should also provide preventive measures and warning signs.

China Leather Association said that as a standard for children's sports shoes with advanced technology and comprehensive requirements, the formulation of the standard will provide inspection and judgment basis for the relevant departments of children's sports shoes production and sales, guide the development of China's children's sports shoes industry, gradually transform from quantity to quality and efficiency, and improve the production level and product quality at the same time, We will better protect the legitimate rights and interests of children. (Reporter Shi Xiaofei)

(Source: Consumption Daily)