After more than 30 years of rapid, extensive development, China's footwear industry has accumulated many contradictions. The export-oriented industry faces significant downward pressure due to a shrinking international market and trade protection measures such as anti-dumping from major market countries. While large-scale enterprises have emerged, a number of small businesses have gone bankrupt.
Several years ago, due to rising labor costs, raw material costs, and exchange rate fluctuations, many footwear companies relocated their production bases to Southeast Asia. The full implementation of the China-ASEAN Free Trade Area has led to rapid development of the footwear industries in Vietnam, India, and Pakistan. From January to November 2010, Vietnam's sports shoe production value increased by 20.2% year-on-year, and the production value of large-scale leather shoe enterprises increased by 23.4% year-on-year, posing a significant potential threat to China's footwear industry.
China's footwear companies remain very strong. After nearly 20 years of development, leveraging its favorable investment environment and abundant labor resources, China's footwear industry has established a complete upstream and downstream industrial chain, forming industrial clusters for various types of footwear production, and establishing comprehensive markets for finished footwear products and materials, as well as footwear R&D and information centers.
Although China's footwear industry now faces challenges such as domestic policy factors, rising labor costs, and competition from countries like India, Brazil, Vietnam, and Indonesia in the low-to-mid-range footwear market, as well as competition from countries like Italy, Spain, and Portugal in the high-end footwear market, the overall competitive advantage of China's footwear industry remains unmatched by other countries.
