Vietnam is hot on the heels of China, the world’s leading footwear manufacturing country. Ranked second, Vietnam exports over a billion pairs of shoes every year and production is steadily increasing.
New data from Research and Markets shows that Vietnam’s footwear exports to the EU account for the largest share of total exports. At the end of 2021, there were about 2,200 companies producing shoes in Vietnam, mainly in the Ho Chi Minh City area.
The report also states that Nike and Adidas have chosen Vietnam as their main manufacturing base. The move of production and export to Vietnam is due to the lower costs, they say. Nike has more than 100 supplier companies in Vietnam, with 96 factories concentrated in the southern region.
Adidas stated in its 2020 annual report that 98 percent of its own-brand footwear is made in Vietnam, its largest sourcing region, accounting for about 40 percent of total footwear production in 2021.
Covid dampens Vietnam’s exports
The impact of Covid led to an 8.6 percent drop to $16.75 billion in 2020, according to the report. In 2021, Vietnam’s footwear products were exported to more than 100 countries, with a value of about 17.8 billion US dollars.
New agreements between Vietnam and Europe (the EU-Vietnam Free Trade Agreement, EVFTA) have made importing easier and cheaper, which is why European exports account for 40 percent. A similar agreement with North America – the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP) – has boosted Vietnamese footwear exports to Canada and Mexico.
The report said that while Vietnam has benefited from its export business, its domestic footwear companies remain weak and the largest market share in this category is held by foreign companies.
Data from the Observatory of Economic Complexity (OEC) shows that the fastest growing textile footwear export markets from Vietnam between 2019 and 2020 are the Netherlands ($60.7 million), China ($22.5 million) and Austria ( $19.6 million).
Visit researchandmarkets.com for the full report.
This article was similarly published on FashionUnited.uk. Translation and editing: Barbara Russ.