In 2019, the Italian footwear sector counted in total 74.37 thousand employees. This figure decreased steadily since 2015, when the sector counted over 77 thousand employees. The decreasing number of employees was mostly due to the fact that many companies in the sector either closed down or moved abroad. In fact, the
number of companies operating in the footwear industry sank in the last years, reaching 4.3 thousand in 2019.
Exports are king
The Italian footwear industry is highly dependent on exports. In fact, data show that in the last few years the
export value of the Italian footwear sector increased steadily in the last few years, reaching a peak in 2019, when this figure was estimated to amount to over ten billion euros. In comparison, the
imports of shoes to Italy amounted to just 5.4 billion euros in 2019.
EU: main destination of Italian footwear
When looking at more detailed data, it can be seen that the European Union is the main
destination for the Italian footwear industry. In 2019, Italy exported 4.3 billion euros worth of footwear to the EU. Among the EU countries, France was the
country that imported the most in terms of value, followed by Germany and Spain.