Shoe sales down in the first quarter

Among European partners, France (+6 per cent in value, despite a 3.6 per cent fall in volume) remains the leading destination for Italian-made footwear, whilst Germany has seen a slowdown, with figures down by 10 per cent.

International tensions are taking their toll: exports to the Middle East are down 33 per cent (with a 62 per cent fall in March, following the outbreak of the conflict), whilst those to the countries of the former Soviet bloc are down 21 per cent, whilst the United States, which has been grappling since spring 2025 with the issue of additional tariffs on incoming goods, recorded a 7.4 per cent fall in value. The sector’s trade balance has nevertheless strengthened to €1.3 billion, up by +10.9% on 2025, thanks to a sharp slowdown in imports, which fell by -9.5% in value.

Difficulties persist in terms of production capacity and employment. In the first three months of 2026, there were 85 fewer active businesses and 808 fewer employees among footwear manufacturers compared with the end of 2025. The use of social safety nets remains significant: in the leather sector, the number of hours on short-time working, although down by 40 per cent compared with the peaks of 2025, stands at 6.2 million – a level still more than three times higher than pre-pandemic levels.

The figures for exports of footwear and parts by region show a decline across all major areas, with a few exceptions. When interpreting these figures, however, one must take into account distortions arising from possible discrepancies between the province or region of manufacture and that of dispatch. In the first quarter, only Emilia-Romagna and Piedmont showed a positive trend.

The decline in exports from Lombardy (-10.8% over the first three months of 2023) is broadly in line with the national average; the region tops the regional rankings ahead of Veneto (-14.8%, which alone accounts for as much as 40% of exports to France, down by -6.9% but still the leading regional destination) and Tuscany (-19.7%, which recorded a -82% slump in exports to Switzerland). In fourth place is the Marche region (-8.9% overall, with -7.7% in Fermo, -5% in Macerata and a significantly steeper decline for Ascoli Piceno, which fell by -21.7%). Puglia (seventh) and Campania (eighth) also showed decreases, though these were fairly modest (-5.9% and -2.9% respectively).

Finally, with regard to business demographics, by the end of March the number of active businesses in Italia had fallen to 3,490 (with a net decrease of 74 units across industry and manufacturing compared with December 2023, equivalent to -2.1 per cent), accompanied by a fall in the number of employees of -0.8 per cent.