Global footwear exports held broadly steady in 2025, with international shipment volumes slipping just 0.1% as the industry settled into a period of stabilisation following the previous year’s recovery, according to the newly released World Footwear Yearbook 2026.
The report, published by APICCAPS, the Portuguese Footwear Association, found that total export volumes were essentially unchanged year-on-year, suggesting the sector has moved past the sharp swings of recent years without returning to expansion. The findings mark the 16th edition of the Yearbook, which has tracked the global footwear trade since it was first launched in 2011.
Asia continued to dominate the global trade, accounting for 84.3% of all pairs exported worldwide last year, a share that reflects the region’s manufacturing scale and deeply embedded export infrastructure. Even so, that figure edged slightly lower than in 2024, a shift the report frames as a modest rebalancing within an otherwise highly concentrated market rather than any meaningful loss of competitiveness.
Europe was the main beneficiary of that rebalancing, lifting its share of global footwear exports to 13.1%. The gain points to the growing role of European trading hubs in redistributing goods through the region’s logistics and re-export networks, rather than a surge in domestic production. Analysts tracking the sector have noted that such distribution-driven gains can move independently of underlying manufacturing trends, making Europe’s figures more a reflection of trade flow patterns than a shift in where shoes are actually made.
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By contrast, North America, Africa, South America and Oceania combined represented less than 2.6% of global footwear exports, underscoring how tightly concentrated the industry remains in a small number of regions. While these markets retain importance in specific niches, their limited share illustrates the scale advantage held by established Asian and European supply chains.
The Yearbook, now available through APICCAPS’ online store, provides a detailed breakdown of 84 individual markets, covering production, consumption, exports and imports for 2025, along with an assessment of how the industry’s leading players have evolved over the past year. The publication is widely used across the footwear trade as a benchmark reference for annual performance comparisons between regions and countries.
The broadly flat trade picture comes as footwear manufacturers and buyers continue to navigate shifting sourcing strategies, cost pressures and evolving trade policies that have reshaped supply chains in recent years. While the overall volume figures point to stability, the divergence between Asia’s slight pullback and Europe’s gain suggests underlying adjustments are still underway even as the headline numbers hold steady.
Industry observers say the data will likely feed into broader discussions about sourcing diversification, as brands and retailers continue to weigh manufacturing concentration risk against the cost and infrastructure advantages that have kept Asia at the center of global footwear production for decades.
For trade bodies and policymakers, the near-flat export figures may offer some reassurance after years of recovery volatility. A stable trade environment typically allows manufacturers and retailers to plan production and inventory with greater confidence, even as regional shares continue to shift incrementally from year to year.