Today, 98 percent of shoes sold in the United States are imported, compared to only 50 percent in 1980, the year the US government ended a temporary period of quotas. Since then, US footwear imports have grown at an exponential rate, exceeding two billion pairs a year with a customs value of over $16 billion.
“Even so, the US footwear market is booming,” Burke said. “US consumers set a record last year by purchasing over 2 billion pairs of shoes at a cost of $53 billion. With a population of 295 million people, this means that every man, woman and child in the United States spent more than $180 to buy an average of seven pairs of shoes.”
Why? As in Europe, the US consumer continues to demand a greater variety of higher-quality shoes at lower prices.
“Protectionism will not even help European manufacturers,” Burke declared. “Despite restrictive quotas on European footwear imports from China, European footwear manufacturer employment has fallen by half just since 1998. The loss of almost 200,000 jobs in just seven years should indicate that setting artificial restraints against market forces simply does not work, and once again is destined to fail.”
“Yet, despite these declines, European consumers just can't seem to satisfy their seemingly insatiable appetite for more imports."
“The reality is that the footwear industry is sourcing its products from Asia and elsewhere, not Europe, and it will continue to do so in order to meet the demands of the European consumer,” Burke said. “That trend is irreversible.”
The American Apparel & Footwear Association (AAFA) is the national trade association representing apparel, footwear and other sewn products companies, and their suppliers, including several dozen US textile companies, which compete in the global market.
The American Apparel & Footwear Association
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