Global footwear prices are forecast to rise 8.4 percent over the next six months, ranging from a high of a 9.8 percent increase in Europe to a minimum of a 5.7 percent jump in North America, according to findings from the sixth World Footwear Business Conditions Survey conducted in April by APICCAPS, the Portuguese Footwear, Components and Leather Goods Manufacturers’ Association. 

Some 97 percent of those surveyed cited rapidly increasing prices of commodities and energy as likely having a significant impact on footwear prices in their countries, and 67 percent believe the ongoing conflict in the Ukraine will have a negative impact or “very negative impact” on the footwear business in their respective market.

Among other key findings:

• North American footwear consumption will grow 2.5 percent year-over-year, on average, compared to 5.2 percent in Europe, 8.9 percent in Asia and 7 percent in South America.
  

• The five biggest cited headwinds were: Cost of merchandise or raw materials (84%), human resource problems (40%), financial difficulties (28%), insufficient demand in home market (19%) and competition in home market (17%).
  

• U.S. footwear imports grew nearly 33 percent in the U.S. in 2021.
  

• Sixty-eight percent of respondents see the health of their footwear business over the next six months as strong (53%) or very strong (15%). But 50 percent of those surveyed from either North or South America described their footwear business as “neither strong nor weak” over the next six months.
  

• Majority of respondents predicted strong price growth on every continent except North America and Asia, where some forecasted falling prices.