Shoes from Nettles and Cocoons
The Market
The global retail sales of footwear broke the historic $200 billion dollar mark in 2010 growing to an estimated $238 billion by 2013. Strong demand from emerging markets in Asia and Latin America underpinned an annual compounded growth rate in excess of 6 percent. This represents in 2010 the marketing and distribution of more than 10 billion pair of athletic and non-athletic shoes. The total number of shoes sold increased by 2 billion pair over the last five years, and is expected to reach the 12 billion mark by 2013. Even though the United States market continued to expand at a rate of one billion dollar per year between 2004-2008 and the prognosis is that it will be valued at $48 billion in three years, its relative worldwide share will have dropped under one fifth by 2013. The shoes business is one of the most globalized industries. In the case of North America, 96 percent of all footwear is produced overseas with 87 percent coming from China, the remainder from Vietnam, Indonesia and Brazil.
Women's dress and casual footwear is with 35 percent the largest product category, while men's athletic footwear including sneakers and boots come in second with 22 percent. Men's dress and casual footwear are rounded up at 15 percent, about the same volume at women's sports wear. The traditional shoe store maintains control over distribution with over more than half reaching clients, clothing stores represent only 12 percent of sales, and sporting goods retail outlets just 7 percent. The largest footwear company in the world in sales is Nike (+ $10 billion), outpacing Adidas, Puma and Asics. The outdoor and environmental shoe makers Geox (Italy) and Ecco Sko (Denmark) have both surpassed the one billion dollar sales mark. The oldest one is Bata, originally founded in the Czech Republic in the late 1800s, then transferred to Canada in 1940 and finally settling in Lausanne, Switzerland. The company has sold +12 billion pairs of shoes in its history.
