A Partnership that Started with Footwear

Quality is the Strategy – But the Tools Were Not Keeping Up 

In 2017, INTERSPORT launched a new organization-wide Quality concept. Quality is no longer a sourcing matter but has become a strategic  focus point. All suppliers in their supply chain are now required to pass several checkpoints. This assures INTERSPORT that their factories maintain their quality standards and their transparency requirements. 

At the quality inspection level, INTERSPORT was dealing with a very manual and time-consuming process, using paper excel sheets to record the data. This gave them very limited analysis capabilities. They were lacking real-time insights into their quality issues, a detailed overview of defects, and information about the performance of their factories. 

From Paper Trails to a Smarter, Faster, Stronger Supply Chain 

In 2017, as part of their new Quality strategy, INTERSPORT decided to digitize their quality inspections. After talking to different vendors in the market, they quickly found TradeBeyond offered the best solution. 

INTERSPORT went live with TradeBeyond in September 2017 and ran a pilot for their footwear inspections. Their transparency increased from day one and TradeBeyond’s real-time analysis report brought useful insights. They decided to implement TradeBeyond’s software not only for their footwear inspections, but for apparel and hardware inspections as well. TradeBeyond also helped INTERSPORT digitize their pre-production sample approval process as well as their technical audits.  

With support from TradeBeyond’s solution and team, INTERSPORT is confident that their quality control and audit processes will be strengthened. 

About INTERSPORT 

INTERSPORT was founded in Berne, Switzerland in 1968 as the first ever international sports-based retail group. In December 2012, INTERSPORT acquired the athletic specialty footwear chain, The Athlete’s Foot, with 550 stores in 30 countries. Today, INTERSPORT is one of the world’s leading sporting goods retailers, with more than 5,500 affiliated stores in 43 countries. 

In total, the INTERSPORT Group has a turnover of EUR 11.9 billion and is represented in 57 countries on all five continents. The international slogan of INTERSPORT is “Sport to the people.”