Chemical Management
Managing quality and safety
Ensuring the quality and safety of our products continues to be one of our main priorities at ASICS. Throughout our operations, we use a quality assurance and management system to ensure our products comply with all applicable global standards. We continuously improve this system to ensure our products and services continue to meet the requirements of our customers.
We communicate our quality principles and objectives to our employees. Training is an integral part of our quality assurance and management system. Besides training our own employees, we also train and certify staff within our suppliers’ facilities. We carry out product liability inspections that cover product safety, the application of quality improvement measures, and descriptions on product labels and promotional materials.
Restricted substances management
ASICS manages to restrict harmful chemical substances contained in our products in order to provide products that consider the needs of people and the environment. We have provided the matters related to the restriction of chemical substances contained in our products, and have established a management system throughout the supply chain at the product design and in the manufacturing process to implement the management of restricted chemical substances in our products.
AFIRM Restricted Substances List (AFIRM RSL) management
ASICS is a member of the Apparel and Footwear International RSL Management (AFIRM) Group. The AFIRM Restricted Substances List (AFIRM RSL) is an industry standard list for restricted substances in products to improve compliance efficiency and reduce the burden on suppliers.
We have adopted the AFIRM RSL as our internal standard for managing restricted substances in our products.
Initiatives for Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)
Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are chemical substances that are commonly used in durable water repellent (DWR) on textile and leather materials. However, some PFAS are carcinogenic or otherwise toxic or may adversely affect the human body due to high bioaccumulation in the body. In addition, PFAS do not decompose easily in the environment and have been specified as environmental pollutants in the soil, water, and other parts of the environment. For this reason, not only C8-type PFAS (PFOA, PFOS), which are already regulated in many countries, but also all PFAS have recently been regulated in Europe and the United States.
ASICS has gradually been increasing the usage of PFAS-free DWR since 2016. In addition, we are aiming to increase the usage of PFAS-free DWR to close to 100% for products manufactured after 2020.
However, with current technology, the PFAS-free DWR tends to have inferior water repellency and antifouling performance compared to the PFAS DWR, so we will continue to seek safe alternatives that have better performance.
Reducing Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) in footwear manufacturing
Traditionally, adhesives based on solvents containing “Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs)” have been used in the manufacture of athletic shoes. However, these solvents can have harmful impacts on people and the environment.
Since 2011, we have been reducing the use of solvent-based adhesives by switching to water-based adhesives, adopting new production technologies and design techniques that allow athletic shoes to be made with fewer parts.