Market evolution: Footwear and parts (CN 64) — 2015–2025
Introduction
The European Union's footwear trade is characterised by a persistent structural deficit with the rest of the world. Over the 2015–2025 period, EU imports of footwear, gaiters, and parts (CN 64) rose from €18.3 billion to €23.6 billion (+29.1 %), while exports grew from €11.1 billion to €15.1 billion (+35.5 %). The trade deficit widened from −€7.1 billion in 2015 to −€8.5 billion in 2025, with a trough of −€10.9 billion in 2022. Beneath these aggregate figures, the period reveals three major dynamics: a dramatic premiumisation of the EU's export basket, a sweeping re-orientation of sourcing from the United Kingdom towards Southeast Asia, and the lasting imprint of the COVID-19 shock on volumes.
1. The EU's Emerging Two-Track Footwear Market: Cheap Imports, Premium Exports
Import and export prices have diverged sharply
The most striking structural trend in the data is the divergence between EU import and export prices per tonne. The average export price rose from €37,947/t in 2015 to €63,535/t in 2025 (+67.4 %), while the import price moved only from €15,265/t to €15,715/t (+2.9 %). Expressed in per-pair terms using the supplementary unit, the contrast is even more pronounced: EU exports commanded an average of €71.13 per pair in 2025, versus just €10.46 per pair for imports.
| Metric | 2015 | 2025 | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| Export price (€/t) | 37,947 | 63,535 | +67.4 % |
| Import price (€/t) | 15,265 | 15,715 | +2.9 % |
| Export price (€/pa) | 51.77 | 71.13 | +37.4 % |
| Import price (€/pa) | 7.66 | 10.46 | +36.6 % |
Leather footwear drives the EU's export premium
The product segment breakdown confirms that the EU's export premium rests overwhelmingly on leather footwear (CN 6403). In 2025, leather footwear accounted for €9.0 billion of EU exports — nearly 60 % of the total — at an average price of €90,151/t (€71.13/pa). This reflects the strength of European leather goods clusters, particularly in Italy, which alone exported €5.7 billion of footwear in 2025.
In contrast, the import basket is dominated by lower-value categories:
| CN Code | Description | 2025 Import Value (€ bn) | 2025 Import Price (€/pa) |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6404 | Textile-upper footwear | 7.66 | 10.11 |
| 6403 | Leather-upper footwear | 7.32 | 19.45 |
| 6402 | Rubber/plastic footwear | 5.91 | 7.41 |
| 6406 | Parts of footwear | 1.67 | — |
| 6405 | Other footwear | 0.36 | 2.60 |
| 6401 | Waterproof footwear | 0.21 | 6.03 |
The EU is increasingly specialised in high-end exports
The specialisation data for 2025 shows Portugal (RSCA 0.396), Luxembourg (0.309), Croatia (0.291), Belgium (0.286), and Italy (0.262) as the most specialised EU exporters. Ireland, Malta, Finland, Lithuania, and Estonia are the least specialised. The concentration of export capability in southern and western Europe underpins the premium pricing dynamic.
2. Post-Brexit Sourcing Re-orientation: From the UK to Vietnam and Cambodia
The United Kingdom's share of EU footwear trade has collapsed
The single most dramatic partner-level shift visible in the data concerns the United Kingdom. EU footwear imports from the UK fell from €1.44 billion in 2015 to just €392 million in 2025 (−72.7 %), with the sharpest drop occurring around the 2020–2021 Brexit transition. Simultaneously, EU exports to the UK fell from €2.89 billion to €1.96 billion (−32.1 %). The volatility data confirms this instability: the UK shows the highest coefficient of variation (CV) of any EU import partner at 1.02, far above all others.
Southeast Asian suppliers have filled the gap
The loss of UK-sourced imports has been more than compensated by surging shipments from Southeast Asia:
| Partner | 2015 Imports (€ bn) | 2025 Imports (€ bn) | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| China | 7.56 | 8.53 | +12.8 % |
| Vietnam | 3.15 | 6.68 | +112.4 % |
| Indonesia | 1.37 | 1.66 | +20.6 % |
| Cambodia | 0.32 | 0.71 | +125.5 % |
| Bangladesh | 0.31 | 0.48 | +56.0 % |
| India | 1.04 | 1.09 | +4.1 % |
| United Kingdom | 1.44 | 0.39 | −72.7 % |
Vietnam's trajectory is particularly striking: its share of EU footwear imports nearly doubled over the decade. This likely reflects a combination of EU free-trade agreements (including the EU–Vietnam FTA, applied provisionally from August 2020) and a broader "China+1" diversification strategy by global footwear brands. Cambodia's more than doubling of exports to the EU (from €317 million to €715 million) follows a similar logic, benefiting from the EU's Everything But Arms scheme.
The concentration of import sourcing has slightly increased
The Herfindahl-Hirschman Index (HHI) for imports by value edged up from 2,200 to 2,248 (+2.2 %), suggesting a modestly more concentrated import structure. China and Vietnam together now account for a substantially larger share than China alone did a decade ago, even as the geographic diversification has partially shifted towards the ASEAN bloc. Export-side concentration, by contrast, fell (HHI from 1,174 to 953, −18.8 %), indicating a broader set of EU export destinations.
3. COVID-19 Disruption and the Asymmetric Volume Recovery
The pandemic caused a sharp but temporary import shock
EU footwear import volumes fell from 1.20 million tonnes in 2015 to 1.08 million tonnes in 2020 (the pandemic trough), before rebounding sharply to 1.50 million tonnes in 2022. By 2025, imports stood at 1.50 million tonnes — a cumulative +25.4 % increase over the period. The recovery was driven by demand for rubber/plastic footwear (CN 6402: 500,000 t in 2025) and textile-upper footwear (CN 6404: 495,000 t).
Export volumes have not recovered to pre-pandemic levels
Unlike imports, export volumes remain below their 2015 peak. Total EU footwear exports in weight terms declined from 293,000 tonnes in 2015 to 237,000 tonnes in 2025 (−19.1 %), despite the rise in export value. This reflects the premiumisation dynamic: the EU is exporting fewer pairs but at much higher unit values.
| Metric | 2015 | 2020 | 2025 | 2015–2025 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Import volume (t) | 1,197,595 | 1,083,084 | 1,502,140 | +25.4 % |
| Export volume (t) | 293,432 | 255,978 | 237,400 | −19.1 % |
| Trade balance (€ bn) | −7.15 | — | −8.52 | −19.2 % |
Domestic production has declined in both volume and value
EU domestic production of footwear fell from 882 million pairs in 2015 to 707 million pairs in 2025 (−19.8 %), while production value edged down from €16.7 billion to €16.5 billion (−1.1 %). The sharp contraction in paired units alongside stable aggregate value further confirms the shift towards higher-value manufacturing within the EU. The export propensity surged from 38.2 % to 93.3 %, while net import reliance rose from 6.3 % to 28.4 %, indicating that the EU now depends on extra-EU sources for a significantly larger share of its domestic consumption.
Conclusion
The EU footwear market over 2015–2025 has undergone a fundamental structural transformation. The bloc has evolved into a two-speed market: a large and growing low-cost import base sourced increasingly from Vietnam, Cambodia, and other ASEAN countries, and a smaller but increasingly high-value export sector anchored by Italian and other southern European leather footwear producers. The collapse of UK trade following Brexit represents one of the sharpest single-partner disruptions in the data, with imports falling by nearly three-quarters. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic produced an asymmetric shock — import volumes recovered and exceeded pre-pandemic levels, while export volumes remained structurally lower, further widening the trade deficit to €8.5 billion by 2025. The rising net import reliance (from 6 % to 28 %) and the shift in production from volume to value both point to an EU footwear sector that is increasingly focused on the premium segment while ceding mass-market ground to Asian manufacturers.