That dollar amount results from a 17.9% increase from leather footwear exported in 2018 when international sales equaled $54 billion.
Year over year, sales of exported leather shoes accelerated by 19.3% compared to $53.4 billion during 2021.
The top 5 largest exporters of leather footwear by dollar value are mainland China, Vietnam, Italy, Germany and Indonesia. Collectively, that cohort of leading suppliers generated almost three-fifths (58.7%) of international sales for leather footwear.
Among continents, suppliers in Asian countries sold the highest dollar value worth of exported leather shoes with shipments valued at $31.7 billion or almost half (49.8%) of worldwide export sales for this commodity. Exporters in Europe were close behind, exporting $29.3 billion worth or 46% of the global total.
Tinier percentages came from sellers in North America (1.9%), Latin America (1.3%) excluding Mexico but including the Caribbean, Africa (0.9%), then Oceania (0.1%) mostly Australia.
For research purposes, the 4-digit Harmonized Tariff System code prefix for leather footwear is 6403.
Leather Shoes Exports by Country
Below are the 15 countries that exported the highest dollar value worth of leather shoes during 2022.
- China: US$11.2 billion (17.6% of exported leather shoes)
- Vietnam: $10.6 billion (16.7%)
- Italy: $8.4 billion (13.2%)
- Germany: $3.9 billion (6.2%)
- Indonesia: $3.3 billion (5.2%)
- Belgium: $3 billion (4.7%)
- France: $2.5 billion (4%)
- Netherlands: $2.3 billion (3.6%)
- India: $2.2 billion (3.4%)
- Portugal: $1.8 billion (2.9%)
- Spain: $1.6 billion (2.4%)
- Poland: $1.1 billion (1.8%)
- Bangladesh: $1 billion (1.6%)
- Hong Kong: $864 million (1.4%)
- Mexico: $744.7 million (1.2%)
By value, the listed 15 countries shipped 85.8% of global leather shoes exported in 2022.
Among the top exporters, the fastest-growing providers of exported leather shoes were: Vietnam (up 99.9% from 2021), Mexico (up 43.7%), Bangladesh (up 32.0%) and India (up 30.3%).
A pair of major suppliers posted declines in their exported leather shoes sales, namely Poland (down -10.5% from 2021) and Hong Kong (down -3.9%).
Searchable List of Leather Shoes Exporting Countries in 2022
The 100 key exporters of leather shoes in the database below generated 99.95% of all leather shoes sold on international markets during 2022.
| Rank | Exporter | Leather Shoe Exports | 2021-2 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | China | $11,185,164,000 | +15.1% |
| 2. | Vietnam | $10,616,091,000 | +99.9% |
| 3. | Italy | $8,385,584,000 | +9.8% |
| 4. | Germany | $3,922,419,000 | +5.2% |
| 5. | Indonesia | $3,307,129,000 | +13.3% |
| 6. | Belgium | $3,014,257,000 | +11.3% |
| 7. | France | $2,547,668,000 | +15% |
| 8. | Netherlands | $2,318,361,000 | +7.2% |
| 9. | India | $2,191,638,000 | +30.3% |
| 10. | Portugal | $1,818,032,000 | +7.7% |
| 11. | Spain | $1,556,277,000 | +3.5% |
| 12. | Poland | $1,118,185,000 | -10.5% |
| 13. | Bangladesh | $1,043,094,000 | +32% |
| 14. | Hong Kong | $863,970,000 | -3.9% |
| 15. | Mexico | $744,665,000 | +43.7% |
| 16. | Türkiye | $599,610,000 | +28.4% |
| 17. | Cambodia | $586,822,000 | +28.6% |
| 18. | Brazil | $508,160,000 | +47.8% |
| 19. | Austria | $505,235,000 | +4.4% |
| 20. | Romania | $459,198,000 | +2.9% |
| 21. | Slovakia | $432,494,000 | +9.2% |
| 22. | Switzerland | $409,591,000 | -13.1% |
| 23. | United Kingdom | $395,727,000 | -23% |
| 24. | Denmark | $388,904,000 | +13.9% |
| 25. | United States | $386,062,000 | +34.6% |
| 26. | Czech Republic | $365,684,000 | +9.4% |
| 27. | Tunisia | $340,958,000 | +26.7% |
| 28. | Hungary | $339,906,000 | +5.2% |
| 29. | Thailand | $308,945,000 | +21.4% |
| 30. | Sweden | $301,246,000 | -0.8% |
| 31. | Singapore | $290,761,000 | +66.8% |
| 32. | Croatia | $201,836,000 | +0.7% |
| 33. | Panama | $177,818,000 | +16% |
| 34. | Myanmar | $161,312,000 | +14.4% |
| 35. | Bosnia/Herzegovina | $154,349,000 | +7.6% |
| 36. | Pakistan | $142,954,000 | +27% |
| 37. | Laos | $139,592,000 | +77% |
| 38. | Morocco | $137,004,000 | +27.1% |
| 39. | Serbia | $117,622,000 | -4.1% |
| 40. | Slovenia | $84,773,000 | -14.5% |
| 41. | South Korea | $81,121,000 | +13.6% |
| 42. | Dominican Republic | $67,459,000 | +6.5% |
| 43. | Bulgaria | $61,945,000 | +18.9% |
| 44. | Australia | $58,129,000 | +4.5% |
| 45. | Lithuania | $56,042,000 | +12.4% |
| 46. | Canada | $55,716,000 | -2.1% |
| 47. | South Africa | $55,606,000 | +11% |
| 48. | Greece | $53,035,000 | +4.4% |
| 49. | Finland | $49,229,000 | -1.4% |
| 50. | Malaysia | $42,562,000 | -28.7% |
| 51. | Russia | $42,260,000 | -54.9% |
| 52. | Philippines | $33,563,000 | -5.2% |
| 53. | Albania | $31,235,000 | -78.9% |
| 54. | Latvia | $27,368,000 | +15.8% |
| 55. | Norway | $25,292,000 | -1% |
| 56. | Guatemala | $24,770,000 | -9.4% |
| 57. | El Salvador | $23,556,000 | +43.6% |
| 58. | Ireland | $21,631,000 | +6.2% |
| 59. | Taiwan | $21,124,000 | +35% |
| 60. | United Arab Emirates | $20,774,000 | -92% |
| 61. | Estonia | $19,966,000 | -11.5% |
| 62. | Ukraine | $19,888,000 | -12.9% |
| 63. | Colombia | $19,329,000 | +23.7% |
| 64. | Kyrgyzstan | $18,361,000 | +1346% |
| 65. | Japan | $12,851,000 | +14.7% |
| 66. | Sri Lanka | $11,856,000 | +104.5% |
| 67. | North Macedonia | $11,727,000 | -22.7% |
| 68. | Macao | $11,605,000 | -62.7% |
| 69. | Peru | $11,219,000 | +37.8% |
| 70. | Luxembourg | $11,027,000 | -24.3% |
| 71. | Moldova | $9,343,000 | -4.7% |
| 72. | Uzbekistan | $6,682,000 | -14.5% |
| 73. | Lebanon | $5,800,000 | +90.4% |
| 74. | Israel | $5,687,000 | -31.9% |
| 75. | Georgia | $5,335,000 | +53.9% |
| 76. | Armenia | $5,058,000 | +222.4% |
| 77. | Cyprus | $4,401,000 | -19.7% |
| 78. | Belarus | $3,799,000 | -96.7% |
| 79. | Bahrain | $3,055,000 | +18.6% |
| 80. | Qatar | $3,015,000 | -8.8% |
| 81. | Kuwait | $2,972,000 | -53.7% |
| 82. | Argentina | $2,544,000 | -5.8% |
| 83. | Saudi Arabia | $2,426,000 | +1684% |
| 84. | Zimbabwe | $2,304,000 | +289.8% |
| 85. | Oman | $2,079,000 | -69% |
| 86. | Chile | $1,954,000 | +89.9% |
| 87. | Lesotho | $1,732,000 | +38.7% |
| 88. | Honduras | $1,658,000 | +1380% |
| 89. | Paraguay | $1,528,000 | -85.1% |
| 90. | Ethiopia | $1,492,000 | +1.5% |
| 91. | Egypt | $1,460,000 | +207.4% |
| 92. | British Virgin Is | $1,451,000 | -52.1% |
| 93. | Nicaragua | $1,373,000 | +94.2% |
| 94. | Andorra | $1,350,000 | +10.7% |
| 95. | Malta | $1,196,000 | +277.3% |
| 96. | Equatorial Guinea | $1,005,000 | +100400% |
| 97. | Kazakhstan | $974,000 | -17.9% |
| 98. | Venezuela | $927,000 | +131.8% |
| 99. | Gibraltar | $891,000 | +1880% |
| 100. | Bolivia | $865,000 | +9511% |
Focusing on the 100 major exporters, the fastest growers were Equatorial Guinea (up 100,400% from 2021), Bolivia (up 9,511%), Gibraltar (up 1,880%), Saudi Arabia (up 1,684%), Honduras (up 1,380%), Kyrgyzstan (up 1,346%) then Zimbabwe (up 289.8%).
You can change the presentation order by clicking the triangle icon at the top of any of the above table’s columns. The right-most column shows the percentage change in the value of exported leather shows from 2021 to 2022.
An entry of 0% in that column means that no 2021 data was available.
Countries Generating Best Trade Surpluses from Leather Footwear
The following countries posted the highest positive net exports for leather shoes during 2022. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. Thus, the statistics below present the surplus between the value of each country’s leather shoes exports and its import purchases for that same commodity.
- Vietnam: US$10.4 billion (net export surplus up 96.5% since 2021)
- mainland China: $8.4 billion (up 21.6%)
- Italy: $4.9 billion (up 2%)
- Indonesia: $3.2 billion (up 12.2%)
- India: $2.1 billion (up 29.2%)
- Portugal: $1.57 billion (up 6.6%)
- Bangladesh: $1 billion (up 31.9%)
- Cambodia: $582.6 million (up 28.7%)
- Belgium: $494.5 million (down -21.3%)
- Brazil: $416 million (up 46.4%)
- Mexico: $346.5 million (up 35.1%)
- Tunisia: $334.3 million (up 29.1%)
- Türkiye: $325.4 million (up 11.3%)
- Slovakia: $198.4 million (up 20.3%)
- Thailand: $172.6 million (up 9.6%)
Asian economic powerhouse Vietnam generated the highest surplus in the international trade of leather shoes. In turn, this positive cashflow confirms Vietnam’s strong competitive advantage for this specific product category.
Countries Incurring Largest Trade Deficits from Leather Footwear
The following countries posted the highest negative net exports for leather shoes during 2022. Investopedia defines net exports as the value of a country’s total exports minus the value of its total imports. Thus, the statistics below present the deficit between the value of each country’s purchases of imported leather shoes and its exports for that same commodity.
- United States: -US$14.7 billion (net export deficit up 39.6% since 2021)
- United Kingdom: -$2.12 billion (up 40%)
- South Korea: -$1.54 billion (up 28%)
- Germany: -$1.46 billion (down -6.3%)
- France: -$1.39 billion (down -9.1%)
- Japan: -$1.3 billion (up 25.9%)
- Canada: -$1.2 billion (up 49.2%)
- Russia: -$1.1 billion (down -26.1%)
- Australia: -$884 million (up 18.5%)
- Switzerland: -$678.6 million (up 1.5%)
- Netherlands: -$627.3 million (up 52.7%)
- Israel: -$527.7 million (up 30.6%)
- United Arab Emirates: -$511.6 million (up 20.3%)
- Chile: -$491.6 million (up 38%)
- Austria: -$448.8 million (up 18.3%)
The United States of America posted the highest deficit in the international trade of leather shoes. In turn, this negative cashflow highlights America’s strong competitive disadvantage for this specific product category but also signals opportunities for leather shoes-supplying countries that help satisfy the powerful consumer demand.
Leather Shoes Exporting Companies
Below is a list of leading shoe manufacturers from countries that are major players in the international trade of leather footwear. Shown within parenthesis is the country where the shoe manufacturer is headquartered.
- Belle International (China)
- Luigi Voltan Shoe Company (Italy)
- Erich Rohde GmbH (Germany)
- Camper (Spain)
- Brantano Footwear (Belgium)
- Foreva – Comércio de Calçado, S.A. (Portugal)
- Liberty Shoes Limited (India)
- Berluti (France)
- John Lobb Bootmaker (United Kingdom)
- Allen Edmonds (United States)
See also T-shirt Exports by Country, Cotton Exports by Country, Cotton Imports by Country and Top Exported Baby Clothing Sales
Research Sources:
Central Intelligence Agency, The World Factbook Field Listing: Exports – Commodities. Accessed on September 17, 2023
International Trade Centre, Trade Map. Accessed on September 17, 2023
Investopedia, Net Exports Definition. Accessed on September 17, 2023
Wikipedia, Shoe companies by country. Accessed on September 17, 2023
Zepol’s company summary highlights by HTS code. Accessed on September 17, 2023
