The Portuguese footwear industry

A new historic high has been reached!

Once again, Portugal exceeded expectations, having this year a growth of 3.2% in footwear exports compared to 2015. The good news was announced by APICCAPS – Portuguese Footwear, Components and Leather Goods Manufacturers’ Association. This means that, for the seventh consecutive year, there has been a growth of sales in foreign markets, and in 2016 more than 81 million pairs of shoes were exported valued in excess of 1923 million euros. All these pairs “made in Portugal”!

This increase in exports also resulted in more jobs, since the footwear industry was responsible for almost 10 million new jobs in the last six years. This fact was pointed out by the minister of economy, Manuel Caldeira Cabral, during his visit to the famous footwear fair, theMicam, this week. As you may already know, theMicam is the biggest footwear fair in the world, gathering several brands from across the world in Milan. And this year, Portugal was represented by 97 companies, one of the sector’s biggest participations since ever! Among these Portuguese brands, it’s possible to find many well-known ones, such as Fly London and Cubanas, but also some new ones.

Even though the majority of footwear exports are directed towards European countries, there was also a significant growth of exports to the United States. So that you can have an idea, in the last five years, exports increased 68 million euros, just for the United States alone. That’s why at theMicam many Portuguese brands announced their interest in reinforcing their presence in major American cities in 2018.

These fantastic results were mainly due to the incentive by APICCAPS to bet on international markets, through the project “The Sexiest Industry in Europe”, something that has been promoted since 2009. Recently it launched its most recent campaign, “Iconic, by Portuguese Shoes”, which you can see in full in the following video:

“Innovative”, “unique”, “modern”, “bold”… These are just a few of the adjectives that many use to describe Portuguese shoes, not to mention their high quality, from the type of materials to the finishes. It’s these reasons and their competitive price that the same people mention when they explain why Portuguese shoes are above the shoes from several other countries.

Now you know. When in doubt, bet on Portuguese shoes, because they’re the tops! And do you know where you can buy your Portuguese shoes online? All your favourite shoes are here at EscapeShoes, where you can find the brands that we mentioned on this post, as well as many others, and who knows the ones that may come in the future. And with the new collections now arriving, pay attention to the website! I promise you that it’ll be worth it!