Industry — printed packaging and tagging

Packaging and tag printing for Footwear

Footwear packaging has to survive stacking, humidity and a long sea passage while still presenting well on a retail shelf. Fotoset prints the full set of printed matter that goes with an export shoe order.

Fotoset produces this work from one plant in Kolkata, with photography, design and artwork, colour scanning, offset printing, lamination and silkscreen printing in-house. One vendor covers the printed matter for the whole consignment, from the sewn label inside the product to the mark on the master carton.

Request a quote Quality and colour control

Image placeholderPrinted tags, labels and cartons produced for footwear, laid out for inspection

Printed matter for this sector has been produced at Fotoset for Mallcom, Ironcat, Lynn River and Gebol, among others.

Packaging and tagging requirements in this sector

Printed shoe boxes and inner cartons, with size and article marking on the end panel
Swing tags attached to the pair, carrying material, size and standard information
Insole and sock prints carrying the brand and size
Leather-shape swatch tags stating the upper and lining material
Care and instruction sheets packed inside the box
Barcode labels for the box end and the master carton

How the work is produced

A shoe box is a structural item and a printed item at once. Fotoset prints the outer face by offset, laminates it to corrugated where transit strength is required, then die-cuts and creases so the box holds square after months in a stacked container.

The end panel matters most in the warehouse. Size, article number, colour code and barcode all sit there, and a picker reads them from a stack. Fotoset keeps the barcode field free of high-gloss varnish so a handheld scanner reads it first time under warehouse lighting.

Insole and sock prints are a small but exacting job. The print is on a curved, absorbent surface and the ink has to survive assembly. These are usually silkscreen printed for opacity.

Swatch tags cut to a leather shape, stating 100 per cent genuine leather or the material breakdown, are a standard part of an export footwear pack. Fotoset die-cuts these to a bespoke shape and laminates them so the edges do not lift.

Regulatory and compliance marks that appear on this printed matter

Fotoset prints the marks the customer supplies and does not alter them. Where a mark arrives as a low-resolution raster image it is queried in writing before plate-making, because a soft or broken standard mark is a compliance problem, not a print preference.

CE marking and EN ISO 20345 or EN ISO 20347 references on safety footwear
Material pictograms for upper, lining, insole and outsole
BIS licence marking for footwear sold in India
Country of origin marking on the box and the carton
Recycling marks and paper-stream instructions on the packaging

Languages typically required

English is standard on the box; European retail commonly adds German, French, Spanish and Italian on the care sheet. Indian domestic supply adds Hindi and Bengali.

Multi-language versions are set from the text you supply, proofed separately, and packed and marked by version so the packing line cannot mix them.

Seasonal ordering patterns

Orders concentrate ahead of European spring and autumn ranges
Safety footwear runs follow industrial procurement cycles and repeat through the year
Size-set changes mid-season create short repeat runs of end-panel labels

Stock notes

Boxes are usually litho-laminated E or B flute for transit strength, with 250 to 300 GSM printed faces.

Footwear — working specification
Common items	Printed shoe boxes and inner cartons, with size and article marking on the end panel; Swing tags attached to the pair, carrying material, size and standard information; Insole and sock prints carrying the brand and size
Typical stock	Boxes are usually litho-laminated E or B flute for transit strength, with 250 to 300 GSM printed faces.
Printing	Offset CMYK plus spot colours; silkscreen for opaque and metallic
Finishing	Lamination, die-cutting, punching, eyeletting, folding, binding
Languages	English is standard on the box; European retail commonly adds German, French, Spanish and Italian on the care sheet.
Minimum order quantity	To be confirmed
Typical turnaround	To be confirmed
Artwork accepted	PDF, AI, EPS, CDR, JPG, PNG

Product combinations

Printed items produced for Footwear

Other sectors