WORLD FOOTWEAR
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2011
accurate, the 20 billion pairs statement is true. If it’s
inaccurate, the whole argument collapses.
Per capita surprise
Some other surprising facts emerged from Apiccaps’s
World Footwear Yearbook. Of major consuming
countries, the biggest per capita shoe consumption in
the world in 2010 was in Spain, followed by the United
Kingdom.
Taking into account all sales of all types of shoes,
Apiccaps included in the yearbook a table showing the
top ten shoe consuming countries in the world in 2010.
The table concentrated on total volume, giving a top
ten of (in descending order) China, the US, India, Brazil,
Japan, Indonesia, the UK, Spain, France and Germany.
Together, these markets accounted for 62% of global
consumption in 2010, Apiccaps said, a combined total of
10.9 billion pairs for the ten countries. Further analysis
reveals that Spain and the UK had the highest per
capita consumption figures. Both are struggling to
achieve economic growth and have governments urging
caution and austerity. In Spain’s case at least, financial
problems are attracting serious concern from many
observers of the global economy. Nevertheless, the
Apiccaps report suggests that, on average, people in
Spain bought 9.3 pairs of shoes each in 2010, 427
million pairs in total.
The UK consumed 504 million pairs during 2010, with
each person in the country buying an average of 8.1
pairs of shoes during the year. The US came third,
buying an average of 7.5 pairs of shoes per capita (and
consuming 2.3 billion pairs of shoes), followed by
France, where people bought an average of 6.3 pairs of
shoes each during 2010 (and consumed 415 million pairs
during the year).
Japan consumed 693 million pairs of shoes during
2010, or an average of 5.4 pairs per person. Germany
came next, consuming 385 million pairs, with German
consumers buying an average of 4.7 pairs each. Brazilian
people bought an average of 4.1 pairs of shoes per
capita, while, of the big ten shoe-consuming countries,
Indonesia, China and India bought the fewest pairs per
capita, at 2.6, 2.0 and 1.7 pairs respectively (although, as
mentioned above, Apiccaps’s figure for consumption in
China is lower than one published by
World Footwear
earlier this year).
The figures include all shoes bought in each country
in 2010; there is no way of knowing how many pairs
were bought by visitors rather than citizens of the
countries concerned.
16
Annual footwear
manufacturing output went
past 20 billion pairs for the
first time in 2010, according
to Portugal’s Apiccaps.
CREDIT: GDS/CONSTANZE TILLMANN)
Chinese heels. Demand in the domestic
market is increasing sharply.
CREDIT: CHINA INTERNATIONAL FOOTWEAR FAIR