Sneakers and sports-related footwear expected to gain market share

In terms of major trends, the views of our respondents on the evolution of the market share of different types of footwear, over the next three years, have not changed significantly from the previous edition of this survey to the current one. Our panel continues to believe that sneakers and other sportsrelated footwear, as well as other footwear with textile uppers, will continue to gain market share in the near future.

On the contrary, perspectives for classic leather footwear, particularly men’s footwear, are getting gloomier (59% believe its market share is going to decrease, which leads to a balance of extreme answers of -45 percentage points).

Nevertheless, we should stress two changes in our experts’ expectations: waterproof and other plastic or rubber footwear are now expected to evolve positively. The balance of extreme answers for these categories of footwear increased sharply when compared to the previous edition of the bulletin: from -13 p.p. to 15 p.p. and from -2 p.p. to 9 p.p., respectively.

Contents

About the Survey
Executive Summary
Business Context
Quantity
Prices
Difficulties
Types of Footwear
Possible Explanations
Retail Channels
Footwear Consumption in the US not keeping pace with the rest of the World
Consumption Expectations
The Importance of Different B2B Marketing Tools
Priorities for Post-COVID Investment

About the Business Conditions Survey

In 2019 the World Footwear has created the World Footwear' experts panel and is now conducting a Business Conditions Survey every semester. The objective of the World Footwear Experts Panel Survey is to collect information regarding the current business conditions within the worldwide footwear markets and then to redistribute such information in a way it will provide an accurate overview of the situation of the global footwear industry.

The fourth edition of this online survey was conducted during the month of March 2021. We have obtained 141 valid answers from 42 countries, 52% coming from Europe, 21% from Asia, 14% and 8% from North and South America, respectively, and 5% from Africa. More than one third (35%) of the respondents are involved in footwear manufacturing (manufacturers), 20% in footwear trade and distribution (traders) and 45% in other footwear-related activities such as trade associations, consultancy, journalism, etc. (others).

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