High Heel Shoe blog

The AAFA “American Apparel & Footwear Association” has spearheaded many efforts over the past eight years since it was formed in August of 2000 to eliminate taxes and duties on virtually every type of footwear sold in the U.S.A. They were victorious in getting a reduction or elimination of duties on many different types of footwear through the Miscellaneous Trade Bill process. They now are leading the way to the elimination of a bill that has been in place since the 1930′s. This bill was passed during the Great Depression that resulted from the stock market crash in 1929 and ran until 1941 when the U.S.A. entered World War II. The purpose of this bill was to levy a tax on footwear that was not made in the U.S.A. in hopes that it would lower the cost of US made shoes while also protecting the American workers’ jobs. Today most footwear sold in the U.S.A. is not made here, but is manufactured overseas in countries such as China, Hong Kong, Thailand and India. So as we can see, although the bill may have helped in the short run of lowering prices, the 1930′s bill was unable to protect the American jobs by keeping the shoe factories here in the U.S.A. open. For this reason the Affordable Footwear Act (H.R. 3934/S. 2372) is on the table in Congress. If Congress passes this bill when they return for a lame duck session to also vote on the stimulus package, this would mean the elimination of the old 1930 bill. So what does all this mean to you? The hope is by dropping the duties being collected on footwear that is no longer being manufactured in the U.S., but is still being imported into the United States, that it would convert to lower prices on such footwear for the consumer. But is this going happen? Although this sounds good and it looks real good on paper, we do not believe the consumer is ever going to see this price drop, and if they do it will be small in comparison to what it should be. Although we here at The High Heel Store are very proactive on providing the lowest prices, the truth is we are not the manufacturer of the products we sell. Many manufacturers of footwear that is sold here in the U.S. are not actual manufacturers either, but are more of an importer. They purchase their products from actual manufacturing plants from around the world, have their label put on the product, and import the product to the U.S. Many “importers” do not own the plants where their product is being made and the plants make products for many U.S. importers. One plant may make products for several U.S. importers / manufacturers. So who is making out with this bill? Since the importers will no longer pay duties on products that are made outside the U.S., the U.S. importers will be the ones making out. The only way the consumer will ever see this price drop is if the importer passes it on to the retailer, and only if the retailer passes it on to the consumer. We do not feel this is going to happen and feel that the tax break is only going to help the big money in this industry and not the middle and lower income people who actually need it. Maybe this is why over a dozen CEO’s of footwear companies have jumped on this bandwagon. Now through all this if your wondering where we stand here at The High Heel Store, we would like to go on record and say we are all for any bill that helps with the financial burden of the working class men and women here in the U.S. We would also like to add that we are against putting more money into big business’ pockets on the promise of lower prices for U.S. consumers. We will have to wait and see how all this unfolds and see where the savings really stop, but rest assured if we see the savings we will pass it on to you. And I’m sure most reputable retailers will also do the same.

Edit:
There are many web sites and blogs buzzing about the possible lowering of prices on shoes. We would like to take this time and inform our visitors that this bill is NOT targeting most of the types of products we sell. The AFA is predominately geared towards low-cost rubber-soled fabric upper shoes and children’s shoes and not high heels. Only a very small portion of our products like our children’s costume footwear and also some of our Gothic line may be affected. This bill also ONLY affects footwear that is not made by ANY manufacturer here in the U.S. But please rest assured that if we do see any savings on our products, we will pass it on to you.

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