After more than 30 years of extensive and rapid development, China's footwear industry has accumulated many contradictions. The export-oriented footwear industry, facing the shrinking international market and trade protection measures such as anti-dumping from major market countries, faces significant downward pressure on China's footwear industry. While large-scale enterprises emerge, a number of small enterprises have closed down.
As early as a few years ago, due to factors such as rising labor costs, raw materials, and exchange rate fluctuations, many shoe companies shifted their production bases to Southeast Asia. The comprehensive launch of the China ASEAN Free Trade Area has led to rapid development of the footwear industry in Vietnam, India, Pakistan and other places. From January to November 2010, the output value of sports shoes in Vietnam increased by 20.2% year-on-year, and the output value of large-scale leather shoe enterprises increased by 23.4% year-on-year, posing a significant potential threat to China's footwear industry.
The strength of Chinese shoe-making enterprises is still very strong. After nearly 20 years of development, China's footwear industry has established a complete upstream and downstream industrial chain with the advantages of high-quality investment environment and labor resources, forming various industrial clusters for shoe production, establishing a complete market for shoe products and materials, as well as research and development centers and information centers for shoes.
Although China's footwear industry is currently facing domestic policy factors and rising labor costs, as well as competition from countries such as India, Brazil, Vietnam, and Indonesia in mid to low end footwear, and from countries such as Italy, Spain, and Portugal in high-end footwear, the comprehensive competitive advantage of China's footwear industry is still difficult for other countries to compete with.