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.
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 (398 million pairs) and the European Union (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).
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.
