Despite a 3.1% contraction in 2025, Italy’s footwear sector sees the light at the end of the tunnel

Despite the persistent crisis affecting the fashion sector, the Italian footwear industry is beginning to show signs of recovery, even as it closes the year down 3.1%: the third quarter, in fact, ended with a 0.9% decline, “a markedly better result than the steep contractions experienced in the first half of the year,” notes a press release from Assocalzaturifici.

“The current overall picture remains complex and spares not even the highest end of the market, but the third-quarter figures point to a slowing of the decline and a first glimmer of light at the end of the recessionary tunnel,” said Giovanna Ceolini, president of Assocalzaturifici. “Despite the lack of significant improvements on the geopolitical front, our companies’ ability to maintain a strong foothold in European markets and to capture demand in the most dynamic areas, such as the Middle East, is key to navigating 2026. Although business performance is uneven, with several firms still under strain, the modest downturn expected in full-year revenue (estimated at 12.8 billion euros) confirms the resilience of Made in Italy.”

On the foreign trade front, exports reached 7.72 billion euros (-1.3%) in the first eight months of 2025. The most significant figure concerns volumes: 131.8 million pairs were sold abroad, up 4.3%. This recovery in volume was accompanied by a normalisation of average prices (58.58 euros per pair, -5.3%), signalling a correction after the double-digit increases of 2022/2023.

The EU (which takes seven out of every ten pairs exported) is growing in both value (+2.2%) and volume (+7.6%). Germany stands out with a solid 6% rise in value and 10% in pairs, while positive results were also recorded in Spain, Poland, Belgium, and Austria. Outside the EU, the Middle East remains the most dynamic region, with overall value up 13%, driven by a surge in the United Arab Emirates (+20%). Turkey and Mexico also performed well. The Far East, by contrast, remains under pressure, with a contraction of more than 20% in both volume and value, affected by the sharp slowdown recorded in China (-24.6% in value) as well as in all the other main Asian markets (Hong Kong, Japan,and South Korea), and by the CIS region (-9.2%, with -17.8% in Russia), still hampered by the conflict.

“The US market remains under close watch, with the eight-month period closing up 2.9% in value against a decline in volumes (-4.2%). The sector is cautiously assessing the impact of the tariffs set under the US-EU agreement: while August registered a discouraging -17.8% in value, preliminary September data show a responsiveness that was, in some respects, unexpected. To date, 55% of member companies exporting to the US judge the effects of the tariffs to be far from negligible, with one in five companies facing severe difficulties,” the note concludes.