The Portuguese Footwear, Components, Leather Goods Manufacturers’ Association (APICCAPS) announced that the sector has further solidified its growth trajectory throughout 2025, strengthening its position in key international markets and gaining market share against primary competitors.
Highlighting the sector’s “strong competitive capacity in a challenging international context marked by instability in strategic markets like Germany and France,” APICCAPS noted a rise in safety footwear (+17% in value), children’s footwear (+6%), and footwear made from textile materials (+18.8%).
Meanwhile, leather footwear, the main component of Portuguese exports, “remained stable in value, defying the global environment of strong pressure on margins and average prices.”
In the first nine months of the year, Europe remained the main destination for Portuguese footwear, absorbing approximately 80% of exports, as sales to the European market grew by 5.9% in quantity (to 47 million pairs) and 4.4% in value (to 1.098 billion euros).
The association highlighted the increases recorded in Germany (+11.3%, to 372 million euros) and Spain (+20.6%, to 139 million euros), whereas France, a “historically central” market for the sector, saw a slight decline of 0.4%, to 263 million euros.
Outside Europe, recovery continued in the United States after a “volatile start to the year.”
Although this market registered a decrease of 7.9% up to September, it is already far from the sharp declines seen in the first quarter.
In Asian markets, APICCAPS pointed to growth in South Korea (+18.2%) and Japan (+4.8%), with sales in both markets nearing three million euros.
Quoted in the statement, the association’s president remarked that these results “reflect the immense adaptability of the Portuguese industry in a period of great complexity.”
Affirming that the national industry “quickly adjusted to new consumption dynamics,” Luís Onofre stressed that “the sector, following current investments, is better prepared to compete globally.”
APICCAPS regards September’s data as “especially significant in confirming the reversal of the negative trend seen in 2024 and in consolidating the recovery path initiated at the start of 2025.”
As Onofre emphasized, this progress “is not by chance,” but “the result of a collective strategy and strong investment.”
With these outcomes, the association leader believes that 2025 will conclude as “a year of stabilization and strategic repositioning,” marking “a new cycle of international affirmation for the Portuguese footwear industry” in a period that “remains very challenging for the footwear sector internationally.”
In this context, the association stressed that the Portuguese performance continues to outperform competitors’, enabling the sector to gain market share.
According to Eurostat data, up to August, Italy’s industry declined by 1.3%, Spain by 3.3%, while Turkey experienced an accumulated export drop of 13%.
As for the largest international player in the sector, China, which holds a 56% share in global production, saw a decline of 9.1% from January through September.
