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, according to the latest edition of the World Footwear Yearbook launched by APICCAPS, the Portuguese Footwear, Components and Leather Goods Manufacturers’ Association. However, 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. As such, exports are reflecting the trend also observed in production in recent years. According to the same source, the worldwide footwear production stalled at 23 billion pairs in the last two years, after climbing 15% between 2010 and 2014.
