1. Worldwide footwear production stalled at 23 billion pairs in the last two years, after climbing 15% between 2010 and 2014, according to the most recent edition of the World Footwear Yearbook.
2. At continental level, the geographical structure of the industry remains broadly unchanged. In 2016 Asia’s share of the world production was 86.7%, only marginally lower than in previous years.
3. At country level, China’s share in the world production, which has increased in a sustained way in the last few decades, peaked in 2013 (62.9%), and since then has declined steady to a 57.0% quota in 2016.
4. The last decade has seen strong growth of footwear exports worldwide with volume increasing by 25% to 13.9 billion pairs and value by 78%, to 122 billion dollars. However, over the last two years exports have fallen by 6% in volume and by 8% in value. This suggests that a new phase in the development of the industry may have arrived.
5. Even if it is the powerhouse of the footwear industry and will remain for the foreseeable future, Asia has lost 2 percentage points in its share of world exports since 2010. Moving in the opposite direction, Europe has gained 3 percentage points over the same period, reversing the trend observed in earlier years.
6. China continues to be the leader in terms of worldwide exports, with a 67.3% quota in 2016, following at some distance by Vietnam.
7. Asia continues to increase its lead as the largest footwear-consuming continent, as its share of consumption (54%) approaches its share of the world population (60%). Europe and North America maintain footwear consumption at a higher level than their population would suggest. At country level, China is the largest footwear market.
8. Europe continues to lead world footwear imports and in 2016 its share, both in value (48%) and volume (37%), reached the highest levels in five years. The United Stated, which had a quota of 22.1% in 2010, only represented 19.6% of global imports last year. In this new scenario, Asia is already the second destination of imports in terms of volume.
9. Average export prices have fallen in the last two years by some 2.2% to 8.84 dollars; this could be another sign that the industry is entering a period of more intense competition. Even the economic crises of 2008-2010 had not stopped average prices from increasing. The decline in the average price was mainly driven by developments in Asia.
10. The average price of textile footwear was the only one to grow significantly (3.2%) in 2016, while leather footwear saw its price stabilize and the other categories registered declines. The price of leather footwear is still 3 to 5 times that of other categories.
Press release
For more information