A difficult year for footwear in China
Full-year figures for 2025 show that China exported just over 9 billion pairs of shoes and other footwear, down by 2% compared to the volume of its exports the year before. The figures come from the China Leather Industry Association (CLIA).
The total value of footwear exports in 2025 was around $41.5 billion, which represents a decrease of 11.3% year on year.
Within this, exports of leather shoes amounted to 520 million pairs in volume and $7.2 billion in value, falls of 5.7% and 11.6%, respectively.
On the subject of leather footwear, CLIA said the sales revenues of “key leather shoe enterprises” decreased by 19.3% in 2025 compared to the year before, but it did not give a value for those revenues.
China imported 170 million pairs of footwear of all kinds in 2025, with a value of $5.4 billion, decreases overall of 15.5% in volume and of 9% in value. This included imports of 53.6 million pairs of leather shoes and boots, valued at almost $2.5 billion. Taken insolation, imports of leather footwear fell by 22.9% in volume and by 16.9% in value.
Image: Aokang.
