More than one in five fashion brands selling into the US have had shipments detained by US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), according to a survey by traceability provider Trustrace.

The survey found 21% of respondents had experienced a CBP detention. A larger share, 75%, said they were not fully ready to prove the origin of their raw materials on demand.

For sourcing teams, the two figures point to the same operational gap. Detention under forced-labour enforcement requires importers to substantiate supply-chain claims with documentary evidence. Brands that cannot map material origin back to the tier of production face the risk of held cargo, shipment delays and potential exclusion from the US market.

What does the survey expose?

The research identifies raw material traceability as the weak link. Brands face growing scrutiny over forced labour in their supply chains, and the survey finds gaps at precisely the tier where evidence is hardest to assemble — fibre, yarn and fabric inputs, often several tiers below the direct supplier relationship.

US enforcement has sharpened the commercial stakes. CBP detentions under forced-labour statutes put the burden of proof on the importer, not the supplier. A brand without chain-of-custody documentation for its raw materials cannot answer a detention notice with the evidence customs requires.

The 75% figure shows most brands have not closed that gap. The takeaway: readiness to prove material origin is now a customs compliance requirement, not a voluntary transparency exercise.

What should sourcing teams do?

The survey results frame a concrete decision for importers. Brands selling into the US must invest in traceability systems that reach raw material tiers, or accept detention risk on a fifth-of-the-market scale that peers have already experienced.

Compliance teams should map where origin documentation exists, where it stops and which suppliers sit behind the break. Without that map, a CBP detention becomes an evidentiary problem with no quick answer.

The sourcing decision the news forces: close the raw material traceability gap before the next shipment, not after the next detention notice.