China, Vietnam, Italy: Top Three Largest Footwear Exporters (in Monetary Terms)
However, in quantitative terms, that is, in billions and millions of pairs of shoes exported, the world market is currently dominated by China, Vietnam, and Indonesia
Shoe production and exports speak Chinese. For another year, China confirms itself as the world’s shoe factory. Vietnam came in second place on the list of top footwear producing and exporting countries in 2023, with Italy closing the list.
According to an analysis of data collected by the UN information agency Comtrade, the total exports of footwear in monetary terms of these three countries exceeded 50% of the international trade in this type of product. Last year, the turnover of global footwear exporters totaled more than 154 billion dollars, of which China’s footwear exports accounted for 53 billion dollars. Next are Vietnam and Italy, which exported $20 billion and $15 billion worth of footwear, respectively.
Germany and Indonesia were added to the top three exporters, managing to export footwear worth $11 billion and $6 billion respectively in 2023. The list of the top five countries has not changed since 2019, when Indonesia “dethroned” France, which is now in sixth place with $5.9 billion in footwear exports.
The top 10 footwear exporters last year included the Netherlands ($5 billion), Spain ($3.8 billion), Poland ($3.4 billion), and India with $2.5 billion in footwear exports.
To have more detailed information about the global footwear market in 2023, primarily regarding production, consumption, and exports of footwear not in money but in billions of pairs, we will have to wait for the publication of the World Footwear Yearbook annual report on footwear markets in late autumn 2024.
Based on the physical number of shoes exported in 2022, the top three global shoe sellers are China with 9.3 billion pairs of shoes exported globally, Vietnam (1.5 billion), and Indonesia (535 million pairs). Rounding out the list of the five countries that dominated global trade in 2022 in terms of physical number of shoes exported are Turkey (378 million) and Germany, which also sold about 378 million pairs of shoes abroad.