Salvatore Ferragamo puts microchips in shoes to fight fraudsters

Salvatore Ferragamo is embedding microchips in its bags and shoes as the luxury industry steps up efforts to combat fraudsters.

Radio frequency identification tags, which work like high-tech bar codes to identify and track everything from food to weapons, have been inserted in the left sole of most of Ferragamo’s women’s shoes since 2014, the company said in its first disclosure about its tagging program. It has since added men’s shoes, women’s leather goods and luggage.

The tags will allow Ferragamo to “track the shoe with certainty, giving the group better control in the fight against fakes,” said the Italian luxury goods maker, whose products include $662 sandals.

Ferragamo worked with Chinese authorities to destroy or confiscate about 25,000 counterfeit goods last year.

Bloomberg News