Europe better than Asia. Portugal better than Italy
According to the World Footwear Yearbook, in 2023, global footwear production decreased by 6% to 22.4 billion pairs, the lowest level in a decade if the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021 are excluded. The footwear industry remains highly concentrated in Asia, where almost 9 out of every 10 pairs of shoes are manufactured, accounting for 87.1% of the world’s total (compared with 87.4% in the previous year). Nevertheless, Europe’s share fell by only 5% in 2023, compared to a 7% loss for the Asian continent.
“Although the year 2023 has been particularly difficult for the footwear sector at an international level, the first solid signs of nearshoring are emerging”, emphasises Luís Onofre. For the President of APICCAPS, “this is clearly a good sign for our companies, which continue to invest and look for new business opportunities, even in a very difficult climate”. “In the last two years, our country has been sought out by brands with unquestionable international prestige, who are naturally looking for a reliable partner with high production quality, excellent service and continuous investment in automation, digitalisation and even sustainability”, he stresses.
In practical terms, China remains the largest footwear producer, producing 12.3 billion pairs in 2023 and capturing almost 55% of the world market share. India has increased its share and now accounts for 11.6% of the world total.
The decline in global production is directly linked to the fall in consumption in the world’s main markets, according to the World Footwear 2024 Yearbook. The US (down 749 million pairs), China (down 398 million pairs) and the European Union (less 399 million pairs) together lost almost 1.5 billion pairs.
In 2023, Portugal (down by 3.6% to 81 million pairs) once again performed better than Italy (down by 8.6% to 148 million pairs). In fact, over the last decade, Italian production fell by 26.7% (from 202 million pairs produced in 2013 to 148 last year), while Portuguese production increased by 8% (from 75 million pairs in 2013 to 81 in 2023).
A significant setback for footwear exports in 2023
Global footwear exports amounted to 14 billion pairs and 168 billion US dollars in 2023, a decrease of 9.1% and 6.1%, respectively, in terms of volume traded and value of transactions as compared to the previous year.
Against this challenging backdrop, Asian countries consolidated their dominance in the global footwear trade, with their collective share rising from 83.9% in 2022 to 84.6%. On the contrary, Europe’s share fell slightly to 12.8%
China stands out as the source of 63.8% of total exports, increasing from 61.3% in 2022. Vietnam is a distant second with 9.5%, followed by Indonesia with 3.2%. Together, these three countries account for more than three-quarters of global footwear exports.
The average export price per pair reached 12 dollars in 2023, an increase of 3.2% compared to 2022. Italy continues to lead the table, followed by Portugal.
Asia accounts for more than half of global consumption
In 2023, consumption in Asia accounted for more than half (54.7%) of the world total, an increase in the continent’s share registered in the previous year. Europe and North America followed with shares of 13.9% and 13.4%, respectively.
China remains the leading consumer of footwear, although its share of the global total continued to decline to 17.1%. Consumption in the US suffered a significant contraction, losing the second position it held last year and swapping places with India.
The European Union as a single region is the third-largest consumer market for footwear, with 1,948 million pairs consumed in 2023.
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