The data comes from the Federal Association of German Footwear and Leather Goods Industry (HDS/L) and it was announced during the press conference held in Dusseldorf at the begining of the month. The same source indicates that the sales increase can be attributed mainly to the manufacturers of sports and safety shoes.

While this is taking place, producers of classic leather shoes are suffering from the major changes in the retail sector such as declining foot traffic in the downtown areas, business closures of long-standing partners in stationary retail due to the most varied reasons and the increase of fast fashion.

In the first half of 2019, foreign trade developed very actively. In terms of value, exports rose by 7.5% to 3.7 billion euros in the first six months. Correspondingly, the number of exported pairs of shoes rose to 174 million. In addition, 2% more pairs of shoes were imported in the first six months of this year than in the same period in 2018.

During the press conference Carl-August Seibel, Chairman of the HDS/L, said businesses are facing a multitude of issues, from the digitalization questions to the thematic of sustainability, with all the additional costs strategies to implement such things will require. And this means small and medium sized companies will have to increase profitability to finance it. A not very easy equation, if we add to this the fact that "it is becoming harder for manufacturers to pass on the increased manufacturing costs of shoes to consumers". In fact, details that illustrates this difficulty were added: "in the 2008 to 2018 time period, the production price for a shoe rose by 15.2%, retail prices for consumers increased by just 11.2% in the same time period".

HDS/L expectations for the second half of the year are very strongly influenced by uncertainty: "Brexit, the USA-China trade war, the direction of the new EU Commission and, generally speaking, the development of the world economy are all factors that rather induce German footwear manufacturers to wait and be cautiously optimistic. Most manufacturers expect similar business growth as in the first half. For the second half of the year, HDS/L is forecasting a 1% to 2% increase in sales.

According to the 2019 World Footwear Yearbook (AVAILABLE HERE), in 2018 Germany was the 4th largest exporter of footwear, selling abroad 406 million pairs of shoes (a share of 2.1% in the total world exports) and the 7th largest consumer market (with a total consumption of 451 million pairs, which corresponds to 2.0% in the global footwear consumption). For more information about the World Footwear Industry in 2018 follow this LINK.