World Footwear

Highlights

Yearbook 2025

US Retail: recovery gains ground amid ongoing pressures

Dec 12, 2025 United States

Clothing and footwear sales have improved since January, with the latter already exceeding last year’s figures, but overall retail remains slightly below 2024’s levels. Although holiday forecasts point to moderate growth, rising inflation, falling consumer confidence and shifting interest rates suggest an economically fragile backdrop. Trade pressures are also having an impact on the sector: the value of footwear imports increased, but their volume fell, suggesting that retailers are absorbing higher costs through surgical price increases. A one-year suspension of additional tariffs on Chinese footwear provides temporary relief, but economic uncertainty persists

Premium Content

From demographics to demand: what lies ahead for the footwear industry

Dec 17, 2025 Portugal

Demographic change, evolving consumer preferences, technological innovation and increasing economic fragmentation are reshaping the global footwear industry, a theme explored at an international conference held under the FAIST Agenda