In 2021 global footwear production increased by 8.6%, exceeding 22 billion pairs. Nonetheless, production is still 2 billion pairs below pre-pandemic level. At continental level, the pandemic did not interrupt the trend towards geographic concentration of footwear manufacturing. The footwear industry continues to be strongly concentrated in Asia where almost 9 out of every 10 pairs of shoes are manufactured, resulting in a share of 88% of the world total (more than half of a percentage point than in the previous year).

China is the world’s largest footwear producer (54.1%) but its share of the world production continues to slowly decrease in favour of other Asian countries, especially Vietnam. Over the last decade China has lost more than 6 percentage points of share.

Asia accounts for more than half of global consumption

In 2021 Asia’s consumption accounted for more than half (56.1%) of the worldwide total, consolidating its position. North America and Europe followed with 14.9% and 13.3% shares, respectively.

At country level, the distribution of consumption continues gradually to approach that of the population: China and India lead the top footwear consumer markets and together account for almost one third of world consumption. In third position, the United States, a major player of the industry, already fully recovered from the effects of COVID-19, with imports and consumption already standing at pre-pandemic levels. The European Union, when taken as one region, represents the fourth largest consumer market for footwear with 1 871 million pairs consumed in 2021.

Production aimed at external markets at the lowest level in a decade

Having fallen abruptly in 2020 (-19.2%) because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the volume of footwear exported worldwide partially recovered in 2021 (+7.4%) totalling 13 billion pairs. Last year, exports represented 58.8% of the footwear produced worldwide, the lowest figure for a decade. The general pattern of the geographic origin of footwear exports did not change over the last decade: Asia is the origin of more than 4 out of every 5 pairs of shoes exported. Europe follows far behind, although it did manage to increase its share by 3 percentage points mostly at the expense of Asia. China continues by a very wide margin to be the indisputable leader in footwear exports but, for more than a decade, it has been slowly losing market share to other Asian countries. Vietnam, the greatest success story in the footwear industry over the last decade, now represents roughly 10% of world exports.

Average worldwide export price exceeds 11 dollars for the first time

The average export price per pair of footwear increased by more than 6% in 2011 to 11.07 dollars, the highest level ever. If anything, the COVID-19 pandemic seems to have strengthened the trend for price increases which was evident throughout the entire previous decade.