Trade

2024 will not significantly change the landscape of the world’s top footwear exporters

Feb 11, 2025 World

We have looked back at the data available so far on the performance of some of the world’s top footwear exporters in 2024. Unsurprisingly, Asian countries continue to dominate, but China has slowed. In Europe, we highlight the performance of Spain with consistent growth in value and volume of exports

According to the available data, China remains the world’s leading exporter of footwear, but its performance in 2024 was modest at best. From January to December 2024, China shipped 9.2 billion pairs of shoes valued at 46.9 billion US dollars, an increase of 2% in volume and a decrease of 7% in value, as compared to 2023, with an average price of 5.1 US dollars per pair.

On the contrary, Vietnam and Indonesia, the world’s second and third-largest footwear exporters in 2023, according to the World Footwear 2024 Yearbook, are on track to finish 2024 in a strong position. From January to November, footwear exports increased by 13% to 20.7 billion US dollars and by 9% to 6.4 billion US dollars, respectively, as compared to the same period of the previous year.

Still in Asia, we highlight that preliminary figures show that India, the sixth-largest footwear exporter in 2023, recorded a 3% year-over-year increase in volume to 240 million pairs of shoes in the first eleven months of last year, but a 2% year-over-year decline in value to 2.0 billion US dollars.

In Europe, where the global share of exports is low, Spain’s performance stands out. After entering the top ten footwear exporters in 2023, the European country increased its exports in volume and value by 9% and 10% in the first eleven months of last year to 162.6 million pairs of shoes and 3.4 billion euros, respectively, as compared to the same period of 2023.

In the same period, Germany, which overtook Türkiye as Europe’s largest footwear exporter in 2023, recorded an 11% increase in value to 9.4 billion euros, but a 1% decrease in volume to 299.0 million pairs. For Türkiye, exports between January and November fell by 9% year-over-year to around 1.1 billion US dollars.

Image Credits: rupixen on Unsplash