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US: footwear prices increased in October

Nov 24, 2023 United States

While overall consumer prices remained stable, as compared to the previous month, retail shoe prices in October rose by 1.1% year-over-year, the sharpest increase in eleven months

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Consumer Price Index (CPI), prices remained stable last month from September, but increased by 3.2%, compared to the same month of last year. The data also indicates that while energy costs and gas prices fell by 2.5% and 5%, respectively, in October from September, food prices rose by 0.3%. In addition, rent, owners’ equivalent rent, motor vehicle insurance, medical care, recreation and personal care were among the other categories to record increases.

Footwear is also part of the latter category. The latest figures from the Footwear Distributors and Retailers of America (FDRA) show that retail shoe prices increased by 1.1% in October, on a comparable basis to the same month of 2022, the sharpest increase in eleven months. More specifically, in October, women’s footwear prices were up by 1.8%, men’s footwear prices were up by 0.8% and children’s footwear by 1%.

FDRA believes, however, that this recent acceleration in footwear prices doesn’t represent the start of a trend of even sharper price rises.

“We noted earlier this year that a usually wide gap between rising import costs and these mostly flat retail footwear prices had arisen, and to close this gap we looked for either retail footwear prices to go sharply higher or —more likely — landed costs to decline. We still see little evidence to suggest retail footwear prices will go appreciably higher anytime soon. Instead, these import costs indeed are sinking”, commented Gary Raines, chief economist at FDRA to Footwear News.

“Already, the average import cost has declined year-over-year five of the last six months and fell 11% in the latest month, the steepest drop in more than thirteen years. We expect these import costs will continue to ebb over the balance of the year, narrowing this gap further as the market returns to equilibrium”, he concluded.

Source: Footwear News

Image Credits: www.businessoffashion.com

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