In 2023, global footwear production decreased by 6 percent to 22.4 billion pairs, the lowest point in a decade barring the pandemic years of 2020 and 2021, according to the World Footwear Yearbook 2024 released by the Portuguese footwear association Apiccaps.
Production declined by 1.5 billion pairs, following a drop in consumption in the main markets. Demand was down by 749 million pairs in the US, by 399 million pairs in the European Union and by 398 million in China.
Last year, 14 billion pairs were exported worldwide, down by 9.1 percent compared with 2022. In value, exports were down by 6.1 percent to $168 billion, the second-highest level on record.
Asia continues to represent the largest region for footwear manufacturing with a share of 87.1 percent of production. China remains the world’s largest footwear manufacturer with 12.3 billion pairs in 2023, or almost 55 percent of global production. India increased its share to 11.6 percent of the world’s total.
Apiccaps highlighted that in 2023 Portuguese production fell by 3.6 percent year-over-year to 81 million pairs, outperforming Italy, whose output dropped by 8.6 percent to 148 million pairs. Over the past 10 years, Italian production declined by 26.7 percent while Portuguese production increased by 8 percent.
The Portuguese footwear industry plans to invest €600 million by 2030 to reinforce its positioning in the luxury segment as it rivals with Italy.
Overall, member states of the European Union were the world’s third largest market for footwear, with 1,948 million pairs bought in 2023.
Asian countries increased their overall share of global footwear exports to 84.6 percent from 83.9 percent in 2022. China represented 63.8 percent of total exports, up from 61.3 percent in 2022. Vietnam ranked a distant second at 9.5 percent, followed by Indonesia at 3.2 percent. On aggregate, these three countries accounted for over three-quarters of worldwide footwear exports.
Meanwhile, Europe’s share of global exports contracted slightly to 12.8 percent.
The average export price per pair of footwear reached $12 in 2023, representing a 3.2 percent increase over 2022 and a 38.8 percent rise over the past decade. Over the decade, the price of textile footwear grew by 65 percent, while the price of leather footwear increased by 24 percent.
