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, the 2017 edition of the World Footwear Yearbook has shown that 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.

Asia is still the leader, but is losing some pace

At continental level Asia is still the powerhouse of the footwear industry and will remain for the foreseeable future. However, since 2010 Asia has lost 2 percentage points in its share of world exports. Moving in the opposite direction, Europe has gained 3 percentage points over the same period, reversing the trend observed in earlier years.

China continues to be the leader in terms of worldwide exports, with a share of 67.35 in total. Vietnam comes second with a quota below the 7.5% threshold.


The World Footwear is a project developed since 2011 by APICCAPS, the Portuguese Footwear, Components and Leather Goods Manufacturers' Association. As part of this initiative, APICCAPS just launched the 7th edition of the World Footwear Yearbook, which analyses the most important trends within the worldwide footwear industry. Statistics are presented to year 2016 both in quantity and value, giving a picture of the positioning of the main players in terms of production, consumption, exports and imports. The publication also includes individual analysis of dozens of markets.

*APICCAPS is the Portuguese Footwear, Components and Leather Goods Manufacturers' Association