For the second consecutive year, the Canadian Apparel Federation (CAF) and SGS, the world’s leading inspection, verification, testing and certification firm, have partnered to deliver a workshop series for Canadian Manufacturers and Retailers in the apparel, soft goods and footwear sector to train them on key existing and upcoming regulations affecting them. Following a successful workshop series hosted in Canada’s major cities last year, the series kicked off this year in April in Vancouver, then travelled to Montreal, and concluded recently in Toronto.
Over 220 attendees participated in the workshops this year, an increase of over 25 per cent over 2018 figures. Many participating companies sent their entire compliance and quality control teams. “Regulations in different jurisdictions along with multiple product standards and related product testing can be hard to manage, especially for companies with multiple products.
This workshop series is designed to remove the guesswork and help improve the level of knowledge and effectiveness of your product developers, sourcing and quality control staff,” said Louann Spirito, business and technical head of softlines at SGS North America. Topics covered included regulations in North America and international markets, recent changes in regulations, incorrect and correct labels, cautions and identification of frequent mistakes, physical and performance/special claim tests, examples of test reports and how to interpret them, and global chemical management initiatives and sustainability.
