China Turns GB 28011 – Shanks for Footwear – into Voluntary Standard

China’s State Council has re-designated National Standard GB 28011-2011 – Shanks for Footwear – as a voluntary standard, having previously been mandatory. Following this change, GB 28011-2011 has been relabeled GB/T 28011-2011. The change appeared among a list of 1077 standard changes in No.7 Chinese National Standard Announcement.

GB/T 28011-2011 requires steel shanks to conform to specific requirements for marking, minimum length, stiffness, hardness, bending performance, appearance, size tolerance and fatigue resistance. Following the transformation of the standard from mandatory to voluntary, shanks will only need to conform to the requirements in the claimed product standard and not to the additional requirements of GB/T 28011, unless the product specifically claims GB/T 28011.

The change from mandatory to voluntary affects five product standards and one mandatory standard. These can be split into two types:

• Type 1: Product standards referring to parts of GB/T 28011:
o GB/T 22756-2008 - leather sandals – stiffness, hardness, size
o QB/T 1002-2015 - leather shoes – stiffness, hardness, minimum length, bending performance
o QB/T 4546-2013 – children’s leather sandals – stiffness, hardness, length, bending performance, marking

Shoes in this category only need to conform to the product standard, with detailed test items for the shank as listed above.

• Type 2: Standards referring to the complete GB/T 28011:
o GB 30585-2014 - safety technical specifications for children’s footwear
o QB/T 4329-2012 - cloth shoes
o QB/T 4332-2012 - craftwork shoes

In this category, shanks should conform to all aspects of GB/T 28011-2011, meaning there are no changes to the test items following the change to voluntary standard.

Stakeholders are advised to update their quality control manuals in order to legally sell their products on the Chinese market.

The change came into effect on March 23, 2017.

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This release was published on openPR.