Sandals, your colours
Lab dips matched to your standard before bulk dyeing. Tap a shade.
Private label
Your main label, care label, hangtag and polybag. Nominated trims accepted.
A sandal is a sole and some straps, which sounds simple until you learn that almost every sandal complaint is a strap anchor pulling out of the sole. There is very little garment between the foot and the ground, so the two things to specify properly are how the straps are attached and what the sole is made of. This page covers the sandals we would source, what to specify, and where our bench honestly stands.
We are a sourcing desk in Dhaka. We do not own a factory, and we will be direct: we do not have a tannery or a footwear unit on the bench. Bangladesh has a real footwear sector and we have not vetted a unit in it yet. Read the note below, and read the rest anyway, because the specification does not change with the factory.
For closed shoes and boots, the [leather shoes](/categories/leather-shoe-manufacturer-bangladesh.html) page covers construction, lasts and size runs in more detail.
Leather sandal types we source
Slide Sandal
A single band over the foot, open heel and toe. The simplest make on the page and the cheapest way to test a unit.
Flip Flop
A toe post through the sole with two straps to the sides. The toe post is the failure point and it needs a plug or a plate under the footbed, not just glue.
Gladiator Sandal
Multiple straps up the foot and sometimes the ankle, with a buckle or a zip at the back. Many anchors, so many places to fail, and priced by strap count.
Fisherman Sandal
Woven closed toe with a buckled ankle strap. More upper than most sandals, so it is closer to a shoe in make and in price.
Kolhapuri Sandal
Flat, hand finished, braided or plaited straps, often vegetable tanned. A traditional make with a hand operation in it and a different kind of unit.
Cross Strap Sandal
Two or three straps crossing the instep, buckle or elastic at the side. The volume women's shape in most ranges.
Slipper
Soft sole, lined footbed, closed or open toe, worn indoors. Cheap and a useful add on to a sandal order.
Kids Sandal
The same shapes scaled, with a closed toe and a secure fastening. Childrenswear rules apply to fastenings and small parts, so send the market and the age band.
Sole, and what is actually under the foot
Sole material decides comfort, wear and price.
- Leather sole, traditional, firm, slippery when new and not for a wet market
- Rubber, hard wearing and grippy, heavier
- TPR, cheap and consistent, the volume choice
- EVA, light and cushioned, wears faster
- PU, a good middle: light, durable and mouldable
Ask for abrasion resistance and, if your market requires it, slip resistance with the standard named. On a flat sandal these are the only two performance numbers that matter and both are properties of the sole, not the make.
Footbed. Lined or unlined, cushioned or flat, moulded or board. A leather lined footbed costs more and is the single biggest comfort upgrade available. Say whether you want a heel cup and an arch shape, because a flat board footbed in a premium leather still feels cheap.
Heel. Flat, a low block, or a platform. A block heel needs a shank; without one the sandal flexes at the wrong point and breaks.
Strap attachment, which is the whole product
Ask exactly how each strap is anchored, because this is where sandals fail:
- Stitched through to the footbed, then covered by the lining. Strong and visible on the underside.
- Riveted, fast and strong if the rivet is backed by a plate rather than pressed straight through a soft sole.
- Glued into a slot in the sole, which is what cheap sandals do and what pulls out.
- Moulded in on an injected sole, the strongest and only available at volume.
Ask for a strap pull test on the sampled pair with a stated force, and ask for the result in writing. We ask for it as standard. A sandal that survives it will not embarrass you.
Straps themselves: leather type, layer, thickness and whether they are lined. An unlined 1.2 millimetre strap cuts into a foot; a lined one at the same thickness does not.
Sizing
Sandals are sized in UK, EU or US and the systems do not convert cleanly. Send the system, the size run and the quantity per size, plus the width fitting. An open sandal is more forgiving on width than a shoe, which is why it is a sensible first footwear order.
Ask for a fit sample in your sample size and walk in it. A sandal that measures right and slips off the heel is still wrong, and only wearing it tells you.
Where our bench stands
Said plainly: we hold knit, woven, sweater, denim and outerwear plants. We hold no tannery and no footwear unit. Sandals need sole moulds or a sole supplier, lasting and strap anchoring equipment, and none of our plants has any of it.
What we will do with an enquiry: go into the footwear cluster, find the units that make your shape at your quality, visit them, take your specification in, and come back inside five working days with a quote from a unit we have stood inside, or a straight no.
Minimums on sandals are lower than on closed footwear, because there is no last set to cut and often no mould to make. That makes a sandal the cheapest way for a brand to test footwear from here, and it is the one footwear enquiry we would encourage from a smaller buyer.
If your buyer requires LWG certification on the tannery, say it at the enquiry: it narrows the list sharply.
What to send with your enquiry
- A sample pair to copy, or a drawing with the strap layout and widths
- Sole material, thickness and heel height, plus any slip or abrasion standard
- Footbed: lined or unlined, cushioned or flat, heel cup and arch
- Strap leather type, layer, thickness, and whether the straps are lined
- Strap attachment method, and the pull force you want tested
- Size system, width fitting, and the size run with quantity per size
- Whether you require LWG certification on the tannery
- Quantity per colour, your target price and your ship date
Quality control, which we do regardless of whose unit it is
Inline inspection while the line runs. Final inspection to AQL 2.5 unless your standard differs, with the photo report before the goods move. On sandals we run a strap pull test on a sacrificed pair at the agreed force, check the sole bond and the toe post anchor, measure sole thickness and heel height against the spec, check left and right symmetry and strap placement, inspect the footbed lining and edge finish, and check shade continuity between straps cut from different hides on the same pair.
Get a quote for sandals
Tech pack or sketch with quantities per colour. A compared quote in 48 hours.
