COVID-19 Pandemic: Impact in Footwear Market

Posted by Swati Tamhankar on March 26th, 2021

Corona virus is taking massive toll in economic front, restraining international travel, shutting down business and impacting production lines of major global business. The list of 15 most affected economics includes India too. With coronavirus disease the world is fighting a heath as well as economic pandemic. The outbreak has led to the complete lockdown with the closures of mall, theatres, educational institutes, gyms, tourist sites and many other business, that led to significant fall in economic activity. The corona virus has impacted trillion dollars of revenues

The impacts of COVID-19 on the Footwear Market?

Footwear is used for protecting the foot from ground and temperature. It is made from different material such as leather, plastic, rubber and fabric. Nike use eco-friendly raw materials, including recycled car tires, recycled carpet padding, organic cotton and vegetable dyed leathers for producing footwear. Focusing on footwear industry many brand has shut down their stores in the country due to covid-19 pandemic. Being the epicentre of the virus, China is the major supplier of raw materials and the components. The shutting of factories and production in China has created disruption in supply chain leading to fast increase in the price of various items.

The impact of coronavirus has been felt globally. Well known footwear companies such as Adidas and Puma are also experiencing major effects due to coronavirus headwinds. 70% of the shoes sold in US comes from China. Many shoemakers has diversified their supply chains to reduce their reliance on China due to the pandemic. In India Agra is the city which is well-known for its footwear hub has been affected drastically. Apart from this many footwear brand have also hit hard due to decrease in sales both online and offline.

Major impact of covid-19 on footwear industries are order cancellation, unemployment, currency crisis, uncertainty, price reductions and many other. Manufacturing hub at Asia pacific has suffered most in the pandemic. The footwear industries lost sales up to $ 50-$ 60 million in the scenario. Even if the covid-19 case decline the recovery will still take 8 to 10 months.

Few Pockets of growth?

While consumption reduction of footwear is having global effect certain categories (leisurewear) and e commerce channels are set to benefit from growing numbers of hours at home and reduction of available channels to shop from. E-commerce is considered by majority of customers in the pandemic situation.

Author:

Aniket Kadam

Senior Research Associate

Consumer Goods Domain

Allied Market Research