The category is defined by its materials
A resistance band, a yoga mat, a dumbbell coating, a racket grip: in every case the object is trivial and the material is everything. Which is why the entire risk of the category sits in one question, whether the material in the container is the material in the sample.
The economics make substitution attractive. A TPE mat and a PVC mat look identical, feel similar in the hand, and differ meaningfully in cost, smell and what a European laboratory will say about them.
Where it goes wrong
It rarely happens as deliberate fraud from the person you negotiated with. It happens when the factory's purchasing department buys the sheet that was cheapest that week, because nobody wrote down that they could not.
The result is a container of product that fails a REACH test at destination, or that arrives with an odour that generates returns, and a supplier who genuinely does not understand why you are upset because, from their side, the product works.
The controls that work
Material certificates before production, not after. Ask for the supplier certificate for the actual material, and require that the material name and grade appear on the purchase contract.
A during-production check. At roughly 30 percent of output, when the line is running and the material is visible, before the container is a container.
Third-party testing on the first order. Send product from the production batch, not from the sample box, to an accredited laboratory. It is cheap and it sets the tone for every order after it.
A substitution clause. Material changed without written approval is a defect. Write it in Chinese, in the contract, with the rework at the factory's cost.
What your market will ask for
For Europe, REACH and often EN 71-3 if there is any chance of the product being used by children. For the United States, CPSIA and California Proposition 65, which is stricter than most importers expect and is enforced by lawsuits rather than by customs.
Get the test done on the production batch. A certificate for a different batch, or for a similar product, is a piece of paper and nothing more.
- In sports equipment the material is the product. Everything else is shape.
- Name the material and the grade in the purchase contract, in Chinese.
- Test product from the production batch, not from the sample box.
- A during-production check is what catches substitution while it is still a rework.
